For writing a social emotional learning (SEL) lesson, use MagicSchool, which has a dedicated SEL Lesson Plan tool, or the general assistant your district has already approved: ChatGPT for Teachers or Gemini. For noticing a student who is struggling, SchoolAI is the only one of the six below whose vendor documents who gets alerted. Keep students away from general chatbots as a place to confide: Common Sense Media tested ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Meta AI and gave AI chatbots overall an "Unacceptable Risk" rating for teen mental health support (Common Sense Media risk assessment, updated November 14, 2025).
Where AI belongs in SEL, and where it stops
AI helps with three jobs in SEL, and the risk rises with each one: prepare (the teacher drafts a lesson), reflect (a student writes about a conflict after the teacher has set the questions), and notice (software flags a worrying message so a teacher can follow up). A fourth job, confide (a student tells a chatbot how they feel), is the one no tool on this list should be asked to do.
The evidence for that line comes from three places, and they are not the same kind of evidence. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit, found that "mental health support via AI chatbots is unsafe for teens" and that teens "should not use AI chatbots for mental health or emotional support" (link above). Education Week reported in May 2026 that school-designed apps "that keep humans in the loop performed much better" than direct-to-consumer apps (Education Week, May 22, 2026). And Justin Baeder of the Principal Center argues that educators are not mental health professionals and that AI-generated SEL or mental health lesson plans are an unprofessional shortcut (Principal Center). That is his view, not a research finding, and it is a useful brake. My view is narrower: a lesson on naming feelings, built on a published framework and read by a teacher before anyone sees it, is ordinary planning. The risk starts when a student's own words go into the tool. I found no peer-reviewed study of AI-written SEL lessons in this run's searches, so none of what follows claims they improve student outcomes.
The framework to build on is CASEL's: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making (CASEL). Ask any tool to write to one named competency and the output improves.
How this list was built
The pool is the SEL-adjacent end of the lesson planning and resource creation, tutoring and personalized learning and school administration and safety categories of the AI Educator directory, which lists 138 tools. I chose six on fit for a job: the tools a teacher can use for SEL work today, some built for it and some general. I read each vendor's pricing, privacy and help pages on November 11, 2026, and where a page did not answer a question I say so and mark it "unverified" or "no public pricing". No vendor paid for a place on this list.
I left out two groups. Brisk Teaching has no feature labeled SEL or behavior on the pages I read, though it is a strong feedback tool. And I left out mental health and companion apps that students use directly, because the Common Sense and Education Week findings above are about exactly that category, and a teacher choosing a classroom tool is making a different decision.
By the numbers. Of the 138 tools in the directory, 18 list social emotional learning or PSHE (the UK term for personal, social and health education) as a subject area. I read the 18: they are grading, tutoring, curriculum-planning and special education tools that tick many subject boxes, and I found none built around SEL itself. The tool in my six with the most SEL-specific features, MagicSchool, lists no subjects at all in its directory record, so the directory's own tag misses it. In the directory as a whole, 36 of 138 tools (26%) carry an independent 9ine security assessment, and 44 of 138 do not state whether they collect student data.
The six compared
| Tool | Best use in SEL | Strength | Limitation | Price / free tier (checked Nov 11, 2026) | Privacy considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | Lesson plans, restorative reflections, social stories | Tools named for SEL | No stated alert to teachers for worrying student chats (unverified) | Free; Plus $8.33/month billed annually | Vendor says it acts as a school official; custom data agreements available |
| SchoolAI | Noticing struggling students | Documented alerts to the teacher | Alerts are over-inclusive by the vendor's own account | 5 free trial Spaces; Pro and Scale have no public pricing | Vendor says it does not train on student data |
| Khanmigo | Exit tickets and lesson hooks | Free teacher tools | No SEL-specific tool; student access runs through schools | Free for teachers; learner price not shown on the page read | Chat monitoring not stated on the page read (unverified) |
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Drafting a lesson from a named competency | Flexible | No SEL tool; not a student tool | Free for verified US K-12 educators through June 2027 | Vendor says content is not used for training by default |
| Gemini for Education | Drafting inside Google Workspace | Included in Education editions | No SEL tool; age and teacher-visibility rules unverified | Directory lists it as free with Workspace for Education | Vendor says prompts are not used for training without permission |
| Diffit | Leveling a text about feelings | Same text at several reading levels | No SEL feature found | Free Basic tier; paid prices not shown | Vendor says no student logins and no student AI |
MagicSchool: the best fit for planning an SEL lesson
MagicSchool is the best fit for a teacher who wants a tool built around SEL planning, because its teacher tools list names an SEL Lesson Plan tool, Restorative Reflections, Social Stories and Behavior Intervention Suggestions (MagicSchool teacher tools list, dated September 10, 2026). The directory lists it at 4.74 from 19 reviews and as carrying a 9ine assessment (directory page). For a student who needs a story about what to expect, see the autism post's section on social narratives.
Watch out for: the pages I read do not say whether a teacher is alerted when a student writes something worrying in a student-facing tool (unverified). Its student data policy says it does not currently offer parents a way to monitor a student's use (student data policy, effective March 9, 2026).
Pricing: the free plan is "$0," described as "Forever Free," with 80+ teacher tools and no generation cap shown. Plus is $8.33 a month billed annually or $12.99 billed monthly. Enterprise, for schools and districts, has no public price (pricing, checked November 11, 2026).
Safety: the vendor says it acts as a "school official with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA" and that COPPA support "relies on schools and districts to provide authorization for student use" (trust page). It says custom data privacy agreements are available and that it does not let AI providers train on student data. Those are the vendor's statements. Your district still has to sign the agreement and approve the use.
SchoolAI: the best fit for noticing a struggling student
SchoolAI is the best fit for a teacher running student-facing activities who needs to know when a conversation turns worrying, because its help center documents how: the system analyzes student chats in real time, flags "mentions regarding self-harm or mental health concerns," and emails the teacher who launched the Space (SchoolAI help, July 6, 2026). The directory lists it at 4.92 from 13 reviews and tags SEL as a subject (directory page).
Watch out for: the vendor says an alert "is not a verdict" and is over-inclusive by design, and it gives no accuracy or miss rate. It also says the teacher makes the final call, so an alert only helps if someone reads it. A dismissed alert still shows in the alerts panel.
Pricing: the Free Trial includes 5 Spaces and 5 Space launches a year. Pro and Scale show no dollar amounts on the pricing page, so there is no public pricing for them (pricing, checked November 11, 2026).
Safety: the vendor says it does not use student data to train AI models and that its contracts with AI providers prohibit it (trust overview). It states no student minimum age on the pricing or trust pages (the directory record says "no minimum," vendor-declared).
Khanmigo: a free planner for SEL exit tickets and hooks
Khanmigo is the best fit for a teacher who wants free, K-12-focused help with lesson hooks, exit tickets and rubrics for an SEL topic, because Khan Academy lists those among its teacher tools and offers them free to teachers (Khanmigo). The directory lists it at 4.40 from 5 reviews, a small sample (directory page).
Watch out for: there is no SEL-specific tool, and student access runs through school or district implementations. The directory record says it flags self-harm and lets parents and teachers see chat logs, but I could not confirm that on the vendor page I read (unverified).
Pricing: teacher tools are free for teachers 18 and over in listed countries. Learners pay a monthly or annual fee, and no amount appears on the page I read (no public pricing there; checked November 11, 2026).
Safety: the vendor calls it "ethically designed with safety and learning as a top priority," which is a claim, not an assessment. Under-18 learners need a parent or a partnered school district to give them access.
ChatGPT for Teachers: the best fit for drafting from a named competency
ChatGPT for Teachers is the best fit for a teacher who already works in a general assistant and wants a first draft of a lesson written to one CASEL competency, because it is free for verified US K-12 educators through June 2027 (OpenAI, November 19, 2025). The directory lists ChatGPT at 4.35 from 23 reviews (directory page). For when a general assistant is enough, see the ChatGPT versus specialist tools post.
Watch out for: it has no SEL tool and is a teacher workspace, not a student one. Pricing can change after June 2027, and OpenAI says it "may adjust pricing."
Pricing: free for verified US K-12 educators, verified through SheerID, through June 2027 (same OpenAI page, checked November 11, 2026).
Safety: OpenAI says the workspace "is built to protect student data and help schools meet FERPA requirements" and that content is "not used to train our models by default." Those are vendor claims. Keep student names and incident details out of every prompt.
Gemini for Education: the best fit for a Google Workspace school
Gemini is the best fit for a teacher in a Google Workspace school who wants drafting help without another login, because Google says "all Education editions can use the Gemini app as a core service with enterprise-grade data protections" (Google Workspace help, updated October 26, 2026). The directory lists it at 4.59 from 41 reviews (directory page).
Watch out for: the page does not say whether teachers or administrators can see student chats, and it sets no under-18 rule for the core app that I could find (both unverified). Check both with your administrator before any student uses it.
Pricing: included as a core service in Education editions per Google, and the directory lists it as free with Workspace for Education. The page I read does not use the word "free."
Safety: Google says prompts are customer data and are not used to train models without the customer's permission, and that Gemini app prompts are kept up to 36 months as set by administrators, with a default of 18 (Google privacy hub, updated October 6, 2026).
Diffit: the best fit for leveling a text about feelings
Diffit is the best fit for a teacher whose class reads at several levels and who wants one SEL text, such as a short passage on frustration, at each level, because its job is adapting any text, video or web page to different reading levels (Diffit). The directory lists it at 4.20 from 5 reviews, a small sample (directory page).
Watch out for: I found no SEL feature on the pages I read, so you supply the topic and check the content.
Pricing: the free Basic tier lets you access content made in the last 90 days. Schools pay a flat annual subscription tiered by enrollment, and no amount is shown on the page I read (no public pricing; checked November 11, 2026).
Safety: the vendor says "no student logins, no student AI" and that it does not collect student data. Those are its claims, and they describe a teacher-only tool, which is the lowest-risk design on this list for the "prepare" job.
Who gets told: four questions that pick the tool
The question that separates these tools is not how good the reply is. It is who gets told when a student types something worrying. Work through four questions in order:
- Does any student type into it? If not, any teacher-side tool above works, and your main check is that no student name or incident detail goes into a prompt.
- If a student writes something worrying, who is told, how fast, and where does the vendor write that down? If you cannot find it in the vendor's own pages, treat it as unverified and do not use the tool for student writing about feelings.
- Is there a data agreement in place and is the student old enough under the vendor's terms? That is your district's call, not the vendor's. The approval post and the privacy data post set out the checks.
- Does the output pass through you before students see it? If yes, you stay the reviewer. If not, the tool is making decisions you will be held to.
A worked plan: Grade 4, 35 minutes, self-management
This is a plan, not a report from a classroom. The goal: fourth graders name what frustration feels like in the body and pick one strategy to try.
- In MagicSchool's SEL Lesson Plan tool (or ChatGPT for Teachers or Gemini), enter: grade 4, 35 minutes, CASEL competency "self-management," topic "frustration during hard work." Enter no student names and no real incidents.
- Read the draft against the competency. Cut any scenario that echoes a real conflict in your class, and swap in your own examples.
- Put the short reading passage into Diffit at three reading levels.
- Teach it. Run the exit ticket on paper.
- Keep anything a student writes about their own feelings out of every AI tool. If something worrying appears, follow your school's referral process with your counselor, as in the school counselors post.
For the whole-class side of behavior and routines, the classroom management post covers the paperwork AI can take, and the school social workers post covers family contact.
The bottom line
Use AI to prepare SEL lessons, with MagicSchool if you want a tool built for it and the assistant your district approves if you do not. Use a student-facing tool only when its vendor documents who gets told, which of these six only SchoolAI does. Keep students' own feelings out of general chatbots. Browse the rest of the directory and the independent security assessments before you add anything.
Dan Fitzpatrick is the founder of The AI Educator and has trained more than 150,000 educators.
