Task force outlines implementation steps for House Bill 40, stresses PSAP connection for panic devices

Representative Wilcox, chair of the School Security Task Force, and staff reviewed implementation work following the 2025 legislative session for House Bill 40, including requirements for wearable panic-alert devices, building standards and creation of a School Safety Foundation.

The bill “clarified who did what” across the program and added higher-education representation to the task force, Jeff VanHolten, staff attorney assigned to the task force, said. “We got clear what we meant with the windows and the the ballistic windows and the glazing for the windows as well as the timeline for buildings to come up to those standards,” VanHolten said.

Chantelle Cota, director of school safety and student services for the Utah State Board of Education, told the task force the law requires panic-alert systems to connect to public safety answering points, or PSAPs, and that vendors’ implementation approaches vary. “We did learn that there are 28 PSAPs in the state of Utah,” Cota said. She added that many vendors require an “entire ecosystem” and that some systems carry ongoing annual costs. “It looks like the cost ranges between 12,000 and 17,000 per campus if we’re working with the device only, with the receiver,” Cota said. “The cost then jumps to about 25 to 50,000 per campus if we’re including an entire ecosystem, and many of these providers have ongoing costs.”

The chair and several members urged the procurement team to limit complexity and prioritize systems that reliably connect to 9-1-1 and local PSAPs. “We are not going to choose the poor route,” the chair said, adding the task force will avoid solutions that depend solely on phone apps. Jeremy Barnes of the Division of State Security (filling in for Chief Pennington) and school safety staff have met multiple vendors to assess capabilities and compatibility with PSAPs.

No formal procurement decision was made at the meeting. Speakers described an RFP process in planning and stressed that state purchasing rules and economies of scale should guide whether a single statewide contract or a limited number of vendors is used. The chair noted that legislative appropriations authorize funding limits but do not obligate the state to spend the full amount; decisions will be made to balance panic-alert deployment with other safety items.

Task-force members asked staff to ensure any vendor solution can provide a direct connection to Utah PSAPs (the statute language requires a direct connection) and to avoid selecting vendors that require complicated add-on architectures that would leave some PSAPs unable to receive alerts directly. The group also discussed county- and PSAP-level coordination so systems within a single PSAP area remain interoperable.

The task force plans further briefings as the RFP and procurement process advance, and staff said they will prioritize systems that link directly to emergency dispatch and local responders with minimal intermediary steps.