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State school-safety grants: USBE details FY25 reimbursements and FY26 $25 million plan
Summary
Utah State Board of Education staff outlined how FY25 grant awards were distributed and described the FY26 $25 million appropriation, including guaranteed statewide items and reimbursement processes; staff told the task force auditors reviewed grant records
Chantelle Cota, director of school safety and student services for the Utah State Board of Education, reported on school safety funding and on how LEAs should access reimbursements for items funded in FY25.
She said the FY25 plan included guaranteed statewide items — bleed control kits, first‑aid kits and wearable panic‑alert devices — plus reimbursement processes uploaded into Utah GRAMA for local education agencies. “Schools should be accessing their reimbursement request at this time,” Cota said.
For FY26, Cota told the task force the Legislature allotted $25,000,000. “We were allotted 25,000,000, and we’ll continue to meet with the school security task force grant subcommittee on the best ways to get that money out to the schools,” she said. Members emphasized that an appropriation authorizes spending but does not obligate the department to exhaust the full amount; staff said they will aim to allocate funds across multiple safety priorities.
Cota and other staff also told the task force the office met with legislative auditors and walked through grant documentation. “We actually spent the better part of yesterday morning... with the legislative auditors and had the opportunity to go over our school safety grama through the audit process,” Cota said, and reported that staff responded to auditors’ questions and left “confident that the school safety center and the data grant subcommittee has been following the process of using funding with fidelity.”
The task force discussed prioritization of grant rubrics, how to balance high‑cost items such as panic‑alert ecosystems against other needs (locks, key boxes, bleed kits) and the possibility of statewide procurement to reduce per‑campus costs. Staff said additional guidance and reimbursement instructions are on the legislative meeting materials page.
