The School District of Philadelphia has launched an AI-powered platform that allows families, students, staff and community members to share feedback and ask questions.
Let's Talk, created by education customer service company K12 Insight, is now available on the school district's "Contact Us" webpage. Users can select the person or office they are trying to contact, and then pick a topic, type their message and choose the best way for the school to get back in touch with them within a few days.
Incorporating the new platform is part of the district's five-year plan to boost student outcomes, Accelerate Philly, which was approved by the Board of Education in 2023 and includes improving the district's culture, communications and customer service.
In 2023, the school board approved a three-year contract with K12 Insight for nearly $900,000, KYW Newsradio reported. The district began piloting Let's Talk for the superintendent's office and board of education in September 2023. It was implemented across district central offices by the end of the 2023-2024 school year, and last month was expanded to include all district schools.
"Partnering with parents and families is critical as we Accelerate Philly, and Let’s Talk serves as the essential platform for providing families timely, accurate and accessible information," Superintendent Tony Watlington said in a statement. "More engaged parents, guardians and community members can promote student achievement, so we are pleased about the work we are doing with Let’s Talk to improve communication and customer service."
Let's Talk was built specifically with K-12 schools in mind. Its chatbot, the "Let's Talk Assistant," was designed to deliver "accurate" and "friendly" answers powered by district data, according to the K12 Insight website.
Let's Talk has worked with more than 500 school districts across the United States. Last year, it was involved in more than 1 million dialogues nationwide — through email, phone calls, text messages and chatbot sessions — and responded to all of them within an average response time of nine hours.
Some of the top topics used by customers were transportation and academic calendars. Of the users nationwide last year, 49% were parents and guardians, 27% were staff, and 24% fell into other categories. The average customer experience score for all districts that used the platform in 2024 was 8.3/10.
During the 2024-2025 school year so far, the School District of Philadelphia's Let's Talk platform has received nearly 35,000 messages, according to a release. The district has an average customer service score of 7.9/10 and average response time of 3.2 business days, which surpasses its goal to respond within four business days. The platform has "totally changed" how the district responds to incoming questions, said the district's chief of communications and customer service, Alexandra Coppadge. The district has trained more than 600 staff members to use Let's Talk, which includes other customer service and workflow software for employees to use.
The School District of Philadelphia serves nearly 200,000 students between district and charter schools, and English isn't the primary language for about 20% of them. Let's Talk offers automatic translations in the district's 10 "key languages," including English, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese (Mandarin), Khmer, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Hindi.
"(School District of Philadelphia) truly exemplifies a new standard with its commitment to real-time, districtwide communication through Let’s Talk — which is designed to eliminate the barriers families face when accessing crucial information," Krista Coleman, K12 Insight's chief customer officer, said in a release. "Our mission at K12 Insight is to unify school communities with our solution set of technology, training and services, and we are honored to be part of SDP’s journey in taking their customer service and communications to new heights."
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