Lightner is a report writing tool for educational evaluators, by Ai-ai. It generates content from supported rating scales and cognitive and achievement assessments, automating routine sections while leaving the analysis to the evaluator, and names the instruments it supports on its site.

Is Lightner HIPAA compliant?

Lightner does not claim HIPAA compliance. Its compliance page states that information submitted will, in virtually all normal cases, fall under FERPA rather than HIPAA because the data originates with a school system, and that it is not responsible for user mishandling of HIPAA-protected information. If you handle PHI, that distinction matters.

Comparison

PsychAssist vs Lightner

A school-evaluation section writer against a platform built for the whole assessment case.

Written by us, about a competitor. Everything attributed to Lightner comes from their own site, linked at the bottom.

The Lightner home page, a report writer for school evaluators — Lightner’s own site, www.lightner-ai.com, 1 October 2026

At a glance

	PsychAssist	Lightner
Reads the full batteryReasons across every measure in the case at once, not section by section	✓ stated	— not its purpose
Intake to signed reportCarries the case from first contact through to the signed document	✓ stated	— not its purpose
Claims trace to a sourceEach clinical claim resolves to the measure, document or note behind it	✓ stated	? not stated
Surfaces divergent dataShows evidence that contradicts the conclusion without being asked	✓ stated	? not stated
Clinician approval gateNothing enters the record without an explicit, logged acceptance	✓ stated	? not stated
Exportable audit trailTimestamp, actor and role on every action, exportable on demand	✓ stated	? not stated
Writes in your voiceLearned from your own finished reports, not a house style	✓ stated	? not stated
Ambient session scribeRecords and transcribes a live session into the record	✓ stated	? not stated
Derived documentsSchool letters, PCP summaries and feedback notes generated from the signed report	✓ stated	? not stated
BAA offeredA business associate agreement is available for PHI	✓ stated	? not stated

“Not stated” means exactly that. Plenty of capable tools do not publish this detail, and we would rather leave a blank than guess on a competitor’s behalf.

What the choice actually turns on

Lightner is scoped to school evaluation and says so, including that it expects FERPA rather than HIPAA to apply and that it leaves the analysis to the evaluator. That is a clear, honest scope. The question is whether your work stays inside it - PHI, clinical settings, or reasoning across a full battery all sit outside what it claims to do.

Ask us both the same questions

Put these to Lightner and to us, live, on a case with something messy in it. Marketing claims are cheap and these are not.

01Show me the evidence in this case that contradicts the diagnosis - the scores, the instrument, and the session it came from.
02Pick any sentence in this draft. Show me the source it came from, and let me open it.
03Show me what a clinician approved into this record, and when.
04Export the audit trail for this case while I watch.
05Ask directly whether they will sign a business associate agreement. Their compliance page states that HIPAA generally does not apply to the student records they expect, and disclaims liability for HIPAA-protected information.

We answer all of these, and the table above shows what each vendor states publicly. The demo is where you find out which answers are real. The longer buyer’s guide has the rest.

If you are already using Lightner

If you work across school and clinical settings, the deciding factor is usually that one tool has to be able to handle both, under the stricter of the two rule sets.

See it on one of your own cases

Bring a case with a contradiction in it - the one where the parent and teacher do not agree - and we will run these questions against it in front of you.

Book a demo

What Lightner states publicly

HIPAA and BAA: Does not claim HIPAA compliance. States that submitted information “will fall under FERPA jurisdiction” because it originates with a school system, that “HIPAA regulations generally do not apply to student records”, and that it is not liable for user mishandling of HIPAA-protected information. No business associate agreement mentioned.
Data handling: States AES-256 encryption at rest and HTTPS through AWS in transit. Training on customer data and retention are not stated.
Claims traceable to a source: Not stated.
Surfacing contradictory data: Not stated.
Clinician approval step: Not stated.

Hold both of us to the same questions. The six requirements are published to be applied to any platform, ours included, and how to choose turns them into questions for a demo.

Common questions

What is Lightner AI?: Lightner is a report writing tool for educational evaluators, by Ai-ai. It generates content from supported rating scales and cognitive and achievement assessments, automating routine sections while leaving the analysis to the evaluator, and names the instruments it supports on its site.
Is Lightner HIPAA compliant?: Lightner does not claim HIPAA compliance. Its compliance page states that information submitted will, in virtually all normal cases, fall under FERPA rather than HIPAA because the data originates with a school system, and that it is not responsible for user mishandling of HIPAA-protected information. If you handle PHI, that distinction matters.

Sources

Everything attributed to Lightner on this page comes from their own published material, read on 1 October 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us at info@psychassist.ai and we will correct it.

Looking at more than one of these?

See every AI report writer for psychologists, sorted by kind →