WELCOMING AGENT: A CHATBOT FOR LISTENING, GUIDANCE, AND CARE FOR MUNICIPAL SCHOOL SYSTEM STUDENTS

Abstract

This paper presents the conception and prototyping of Agente Acolhedor, a chatbot designed to support school welcoming services in initial listening, guidance, and referral organization in situations involving violence, psychological distress, vulnerability, and rights violations affecting children and adolescents in the municipal school system. The research problem derives from underreporting and the difficulty of handling sensitive narratives safely, using appropriate language, protecting personal data, and respecting the pace of the person being heard. The proposal is not intended to replace professionals, institutional decisions, or child-protection agencies; rather, it supports the school professional by indicating careful approaches, flagging relevant elements, assisting with records, and suggesting referral pathways aligned with existing protocols. The methodology combines bibliographic and documentary review, analysis of related work, personas, user journey, UX/UI requirements, low-fidelity prototyping, and heuristic interface evaluation. Institutional documents, Brazilian legislation, and recent literature on artificial intelligence in education, human-computer interaction, mental health, ethics, and data protection were considered. The resulting proposal is a humanized, accessible, and ethically bounded digital solution capable of strengthening school-based welcoming without turning listening into an automated interrogation. The study concludes that Agente Acolhedor is socially and educationally relevant because it integrates technology, comprehensive protection, and user experience in a highly sensitive context.