Bark uses advanced AI to monitor texts, emails, and 30+ apps for signs of serious safety concerns like cyberbullying, self-harm, suicidal ideation, online predators, sexual content, violence, and drug or alcohol use. It analyzes context and tone—not just keywords—so alerts are more accurate and meaningful. You can see a full breakdown of how Bark’s monitoring works here.

Alerts are generated when potentially harmful content is detected in students’ school-issued accounts. These alerts are added to the reviewer dashboard for staff to review. Reviewers assigned to those student groups receive notifications via email and can see the flagged content directly in their Bark for Schools dashboard, with options to filter and manage alerts. 

Schools using Bark for Schools+ can also configure alerts to be sent by text and phone call for urgent issues, and alerts can be shared with parents through the Parent Portal once enabled. Learn more about the process here.

Our advanced AI monitors Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts, including emails, documents, spreadsheets, chats, files, and more. Check out the full list to see everything we monitor.

Set up is easy! Learn more in our Super Admin’s guide.

Bark supports documentation and consistency across schools by giving reviewers a centralized dashboard to view, sort, and track alerts generated from monitored student accounts, complete with review history and timestamps so everyone can see what actions were taken. 

It also provides reporting tools that break down alert trends by category, group, and date, which helps schools maintain consistent review practices and share insights across teams. For more details on how reviewers can use these features to standardize safety efforts, see Bark’s reviewer guide.

Our success team works to meet your needs, suggesting quarterly check-ins but available to meet less or more often! During these meetings, we’ll check in on the account, share robust insight reports, and provide the school teams with ongoing training to ensure new and old employees are up to date on how to receive critical alerts.

Security is one of our highest priorities at Bark, and we adhere to all of the standards required by FERPA, a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. In an effort to provide maximum protection for students and their families, many states have adopted their own privacy legislation in addition to FERPA, and we meet or exceed each of these requirements, as well.

Yes! Bark for Schools includes a free monitoring option. Both the free and paid versions use the same AI technology to help alert school staff to online situations that may indicate physical harm or risks to student mental well-being. With either option, schools get fewer false positives, insights across 26 categories, and a dashboard of all alerts.

Paid customers benefit from tools designed for early intervention and emergency response, including custom alert routing, email delivery for non-severe alerts so they don’t get missed, and reporting to track trends and help inform resourcing. Alerts are also sent more frequently in an area where timing is everything.

Bark for Schools+ is just $3/student*, and helps schools move from reactive response to proactive prevention. Protect your students and buildings with the leading monitoring technology, at one of the lowest prices on the market.

*minimum of $1200/year.