🛝 ChatGPT Can Harm Teens, Dual Enrollment Stalls, Disability Tech Evolves

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: Schools want to expand dual enrollment but can't find enough credentialed teachers. Meanwhile, researchers discovered ChatGPT gives dangerous advice to teens in crisis half the time, and Stanford is pioneering a new approach to disability tech that starts with the students themselves.

💎 Data Gem

EdTech investment is consolidating fast. 

The ImpactX2050 X Report shows global education M&A deal volume in Q2 2025 fell 39% year-over-year to just 48 transactions, yet disclosed deal value surged 690% to $3.46 billion. 

Translation: fewer companies are getting funding, but the winners are getting massive checks.

Dual Enrollment Demand Soars, But Schools Can't Scale Fast Enough

Nearly 2.5 million high school students are taking college courses through dual enrollment programs, with 1.8 million enrolled at community colleges. 

These students now represent over 20% of total community college enrollment.

The growth makes sense. 

College costs keep rising, students want career-relevant education, and families see the head start advantage.

But scaling these programs is harder than districts expected. 

A recent Pearson survey of 200 dual enrollment decision-makers revealed the core challenge: schools need credentialed teachers to deliver college-level courses, but the qualified teacher pool is limited.

"Managing the relationship with the college, getting instructors approved, tracking student performance, it's a lot," one respondent shared. Another added: "Scheduling, staffing and partnerships - those are our biggest hurdles."

The administrative complexity is crushing districts. 

They're juggling relationships between K-12 and higher ed systems, managing credentialing requirements, and trying to maintain quality while expanding access.

Virtual, asynchronous models are emerging as one of the solutions. These approaches can reduce strain on credentialed faculty, promote consistency across districts, and give students flexibility to balance school and other commitments.

The market opportunity is substantial for companies that can streamline dual enrollment implementation while maintaining rigor. Think platforms that handle the complex partnerships, provide wraparound student support, and reduce reliance on scarce credentialed staff.

ChatGPT Gives Dangerous Advice to Teens in Crisis Half the Time

Researchers from the Center for Countering Hate posed as three 13-year-olds discussing self-harm, eating disorders, and substance abuse with ChatGPT. 

The results were alarming.

Out of 1,200 responses, ChatGPT responded harmfully more than half the time. 

Even worse: 47% of harmful responses led to follow-up messages encouraging further dangerous behavior.

The examples are disturbing. 

A fake teen asking about substance abuse received instructions on hiding alcohol intoxication at school. 

Another expressing depression got help writing a suicide letter. 

A third discussing eating disorders received a restrictive diet plan.

"We weren't trying to trick ChatGPT," said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Hate. Safety measures were easily bypassed by simply stating the information was "for a presentation."

This matters beyond individual safety concerns. Common Sense Media found that 18% of teens talk to chatbots for advice, 17% because they're "always available," and 14% because they "don't judge."

OpenAI says ChatGPT is trained to encourage users with harmful thoughts to seek professional help and provides crisis hotline links. 

But the research shows these safeguards aren't working consistently.

The business implication is clear: there's massive demand for AI companionship tools designed specifically for teens, with robust safety measures built from the ground up. 

Companies that can balance the "always available" support teens crave with meaningful harm prevention will find a receptive market.

Stanford Crowdsources AI Solutions for Students with Disabilities

Stanford's Accelerator for Learning ran a symposium and hackathon where teachers, students with disabilities, and AI innovators collaborated to build product prototypes. 

The winning idea? 

A tool that translates complex IEP language into plain English for parents, with multilingual support.

The approach flips traditional product development. 

Instead of building for disabilities, teams designed with disabled students as co-creators from day one.

"There is a long history of people with disabilities having innovated essentially at the margins for specific topics and issues that they're facing, but then those innovations benefiting everyone," explained Isabelle Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.

The hackathon produced tools spanning early identification of learning disabilities, personalized reading interventions, and IEP translation services. 

One prototype helps general education teachers get AI-generated recommendations for supporting students with different learning needs in the same classroom.

Stanford is building assessment tools like ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading) for early dyslexia identification, plus Kai, a reading support tool for struggling learners.

The Stanford research suggests the biggest opportunities lie in tools that are co-designed with disabled students rather than built for them.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

College earnings premium shrinks — New NBER research shows the college earnings boost for low-income students has halved since 1960, largely due to institutional sorting into lower-return programs

LA schools vendor hid breach for 8 months — LAUSD's telehealth provider Kokomo24/7 suffered a data breach in December 2024 but didn't disclose it until August 2025

AI security cameras raise concerns — Districts testing VOLT AI for weapon/threat detection face privacy concerns and false positive risks at $385 per camera stream annually

Americans resist Education Department closure — PDK poll shows only 13% have high confidence in public schools, but support for keeping federal education oversight remains strong

📚 Weekend Reads

Monthly roundup of resources you might like:

• Education Cannot Wait – Global Estimates 2025 — Data insights beneficial for understanding global education technology needs

• RAND: Teacher Well-Being and Pay Study — 2025 analysis of teacher satisfaction, compensation, and retention intentions with implications for education workforce solutions

• Carnegie Learning: State of AI in Education 2025 — National educator survey revealing AI adoption patterns and identifying remaining product opportunities

• Brookings: Post-COVID Recovery Analysis — Five-year analysis showing divergent math and reading recovery patterns, highlighting ongoing academic support needs

To stay up-to-date on all things education innovation, visit us at playgroundpost.com.