K‑12 and higher‑education districts are piloting AI‑based mental‑health tools that triage student risk, offer on‑demand support, and surface after‑hours alerts to counselors. Districts using platforms report cases where AI flagged students at risk and prompted human intervention. At scale, the tools promise coverage for understaffed counseling services, but they also raise privacy, oversight and efficacy questions. New data from over 1,000 districts shows real‑world student AI usage trends and reveals blind spots for bans versus governance. Experts caution that banning tools creates monitoring gaps; instead, districts and campuses are urged to adopt oversight frameworks, vendor scrutiny, clinician integration, and transparent communication with families.