Utah Superintendent of Public Instruction Molly Hart told the School Safety Task Force that the state’s student information hub (UCIMS) is “ready to communicate” with local student information systems and that the state is working to make statewide safety and early‑warning tools interoperable.

Hart said the RFP for an early‑warning system is currently under a protest challenge that she expected to be resolved within 14 days, and she described the UCIMS hub as prepared to accept API connections from district systems once technical and policy choices are made.

"What's most important to us is that we get clear, accurate, and transparent data that we can provide to you and our stakeholders," Hart said, summarizing the state board’s priorities and the goals of recently passed legislation (identified in testimony as HB 508).

Hart and task force members emphasized two tradeoffs: preserving local control and achieving interoperable, standardized data. Hart said an advisory committee established by the HB 508 legislation will issue a report to the Legislature by Sept. 15 with recommendations on how to proceed for student information systems.

Representative Wilcox, among others, urged the board to set clear data standards and require vendors to deliver data in the state’s chosen format rather than mandate a single vendor. Wilcox noted the value of automated API feeds and said that removing manual spreadsheet processes is a key step to make threat assessments and other safety data actionable for decision makers.

Rhett Larson, the school safety center coordinator, described a Texas statewide initiative (referred to in testimony as the Sentinel program) that centralizes safety plans, behavior threat assessment tools and emergency alerts so that critical information can follow a student between districts. Larson said Texas began training in August and invited Utah observers to learn from its rollout.

Chantelle Cota, director of school safety and student services at the Utah State Board of Education, reported on the fiscal‑year 2025 school safety and support grant program. She said the Legislature appropriated $48,700,000 for the program; local education agencies (districts and charters) have until June 30, 2027, to spend awarded funds and continue to submit reimbursement requests. Top categories for awarded funds included door locks, exterior cameras and firearm storage devices, video surveillance and public‑address systems, Cota said.

Cota said the board will issue a progress report to LEAs and can return to the task force with more detailed reimbursement and spending data. Representative Eliason asked whether districts that already made safety investments would be disadvantaged; Cota said districts should use grant funds for remaining gaps identified in their needs assessments.

The safety center noted two additional items of interest: the Averted School Violence repository, now managed by Safe and Sound Schools, which collects case studies of incidents stopped before violence occurred; and national recognition for a Utah school resource officer. Leticia Johnson of the Logan City Police Department was named National School Resource Officer of the Year, and speakers praised her long‑term, relationship‑building approach with elementary students.

Chief Pennington, who also attended national SRO sessions with state staff, urged stronger training expectations for SROs and wider adoption of consistent response protocols. "If we are gonna have an SRO in a school ... we get rid of the 'may attend' this training and that should be a ... 'shall' attend a certified training," he said, arguing that common, certified training better prepares officers for juvenile and school‑specific responses.

Next steps noted to the task force included resolution of the early‑warning RFP protest, the HB 508 advisory committee report due Sept. 15, continued work to finalize APIs and interoperability with UCIMS, and issuance of a progress report on FY25 grant spending.