The New Safety Net: Navigating Student Mental Health and Digital Wellness in an AI-Saturated World

Students are growing up in an environment fundamentally different from any generation before - one shaped by constant connectivity, AI-powered tools, digital surveillance, and unprecedented pressure on mental health. The result: today’s students need a broader, more integrated safety net than schools were ever designed to provide.This session explores how school systems are evolving that safety net and brings together mental health supports, social-emotional learning, digital citizenship, online security, and emerging AI safeguards into a more coherent whole. Education and technology leaders will share how they are responding to new risks without overcorrecting, balancing protection with trust, and safety with student agency.From offline wellbeing to online resilience, this conversation examines what it truly takes to support the whole child and create emotionally healthy, digitally aware school communities in an era defined by powerful technologies.