Innovate
Scholar Education launches telehealth psychology practice
The first student evaluations will be performed this month.
When Ed Buckley and Marlee Strawn founded Tampa-based Scholar Education in 2023, the goal was simple. The entrepreneurs wanted to utilize cutting-edge technology to create tools that could benefit both students and teachers.
This mission led to the development of two artificial intelligence-powered assistants, BaxterBot (student-focused) and PAWfessor Bruce (educator-focused). Both were named after Buckley’s dogs.
These platforms can help create individualized lesson plans, evaluate performance and provide real-time support. They have been used by thousands of individuals across Florida.
Now, Buckley and Strawn are preparing to launch a telehealth psychology practice, currently known as Scholar Health. Artificial intelligence will play a key role. The first student evaluations will be performed this month.
“Where the market really pulled us to was helping teachers manage accommodations for students,” Buckley explained. “Along the way we just kept hearing, totally unsolicited, ‘hey, that’s great’ and ‘that’s helpful,’ but the real problem is upstream of having the accommodations.”
He said that completing evaluations and preparing lesson plans for children who have learning challenges or special needs is a time-consuming process. Psychologists are “completely overwhelmed” with the current amount of students who need assistance, Buckley believes.
“Technology is really great at unlocking time and capacity for expert clinicians when you focus the AI on the administrative side, the note taking side and a lot of the follow-up side,” he said. “This lets the clinician maximize their human-to-human interaction with the students.”
Conversations about the practice began in the fall of 2025. By March, Buckley and Strawn were committed to the idea.
Scholar Education has already hired the initiative’s head of clinical psychology. The professional will be revealed later this month. Additionally, the organization plans to hire more practitioners over time.
“Right now, if you’re a family, you can wait up to a year to get the evaluation and the plan written,” Buckley said. “To think that a kid could lose almost an entire school year is just tragic.”
Another option is private practice. However, he added, it is not usually covered by insurance and there are still wait lists.
“So many industries have solved this waiting in line issue by pairing expert clinicians with AI,” Buckley explained. “For us, it is ‘how do we get people out of lines that they never should have been stuck in in the first place’?”
With the technology, evaluation reports can be prepared in a matter of weeks.
Scholar Education is also developing an AI-powered education plan writer. This can help schools develop customized learning experiences for students.
“It always leaves the clinician at the center,” he said. “The evaluations are done by psychologists, and the school psychologist will still have the final authority over the plan. We’ll just be there to help and compress timelines on that.”
The practice will be cash pay, Buckley added. However, the Scholar Education team is “trying to make the cost significantly less than what the market is charging right now.”
Scholar Health will be introduced in the Tampa Bay region first. In 2027, Buckley hopes to launch the venture in at least 10 other states.
