CENTEGIX | Education
Utah School Safety Standards
CENTEGIX | Education
Utah School Safety Standards
Alyssa’s Law Passes in Utah: Part of House Bill 84
Governor Spencer Cox recently signed Alyssa’s Law, authored by Sen. Don Ipson and Rep. Ryan Wilcox, into law. This legislation, included as part of the Utah’s largest school safety measure, H.B.84, will require Utah public and charter schools to “provide a staff person in each classroom with a wearable panic alert device that allows for immediate contact with emergency services or emergency services agencies, law enforcement agencies, health departments, and fire departments.”
Alyssa’s Law is named for Alyssa Alhadeff, a victim of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and has been championed by Alyssa’s parents, Lori and Dr. Ilan Alhadeff. Alyssa’s Law has garnered support across the political spectrum as a common-sense solution for school safety.
The new law requires schools to adopt emergency communications systems such as CrisisAlert™—part of the CENTEGIX Safety Platform™—a rapid incident response solution that helps protect students and staff members by empowering teachers and staff to immediately get help with a discreet panic button on a wearable badge. CrisisAlert operates via a private network, the ideal solution for schools where gaps in Wi-Fi and poor cellular signals can often disrupt connectivity. With intelligent response mapping and campus-wide notification capabilities, CrisisAlert can simultaneously send a school into lockdown while immediately providing first responders with exact location information, enabling them to respond faster in an emergency situation.
In addition to emergency communication systems, H.B.84 also mandates:
School safety incident and data reporting requirements
Additional school safety requirements
School Safety and Support Grant: House Bill 61
The Utah State Legislature recently passed a new school safety funding program—The School Safety and Support Grant. This grant program, also known as House Bill 61, allocates 72 million dollars for Utah schools to purchase safety and security enhancements for their campuses and creates new requirements for schools around safety and security.
“There are schools in our state that don’t have working intercoms,” Utah State Board of Education School Safety Specialist Rhett Larsen. “There are schools that don’t have locks on interior doors or locks that work on interior doors.”
In order to apply for the grant funding, schools must each have a designated school safety specialist on staff and complete a building safety assessment.
Allowable expenses include but are not limited to:
interoperable communication hardware and software systems
panic buttons
utilization of all-hazards response technology
Additional Funding for Utah School Safety Solutions
Stronger Connections Grants
In late 2022, the U.S. Department of Education announced nearly $1 billion in awards through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). In Utah, the Stronger Connections grants aim to provide students with safe and supportive learning opportunities and environments critical for academic success. Utah was awarded $5,100,063 through this program.
Through the BSCA, Congress awarded $1 billion in funding to state educational agencies (SEAs) to develop state grant programs to give students safer and healthier learning environments. The BSCA specifies that SEAs must award these funds competitively to high-need LEAs, as determined by the state.
This grant focuses on helping schools foster sustained learning, engagement, and attachment for students in Utah schools. The Stronger Connections Grant Program mandates that schools should accomplish this by becoming more resilient, supporting mental health, and improving school climate.
According to the Department of Education, schools should spend Stronger Connections Grant Program funds to:
- Implement evidence-based strategies that meet students’ social, emotional, and mental well-being needs.
- Create positive, inclusive, and supportive school environments.
- Increase access to place-based interventions and services.
- Engage students, families, educators, staff, and community organizations in selecting and implementing strategies to create safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments.
- Design and implement policies and practices responsive to underserved students, protecting student rights, and demonstrating respect for student dignity and potential.
Spending that qualifies for funding could include hiring counselors and nurses, providing teacher training on inclusion and behavioral interventions, expanding mental and behavioral services, and other related efforts to create a positive and supportive climate in Utah schools.
ESSER Funds for Utah
As part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds were made available to address the pandemic’s impact on student safety and mental well-being. As of June 30, 2022, Utah has spent 25% of the funds awarded to the state.
For the first round of ESSER grants, Utah was allocated $67,821,787. The deadline to obligate those funds was Sept. 30, 2022.
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act was passed in 2020. As part of the act, Utah’s ESSER II allocation was $274,071,684, and it must be obligated by Sept. 30, 2023.
An additional round of funding was made available as part of the American Rescue Plan. Utah’s portion of those ESSER funds is $615,929,016, and the obligation deadline is Sept. 30, 2024.
COPS School Violence Prevention Program
The COPS School Violence Prevention Program is oversaw by the U.S. Department of Justice. The money is earmarked for evidence-based school safety programs and technology.
Those funds can be used by schools to purchase school safety technology that helps identify potential dangers. The money can also be used to improve emergency notification and response systems. To learn more, visit the COPS website.
BJA’s STOP School Violence Program
The U.S. Department of Justice also has funds available through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. BJA’s STOP School Violence Program funds software that helps K-12 schools maintain a safe environment. It’s geared toward recognizing, responding to, and preventing violence on campus. Learn more here.
Federal Grants
The federal grants awarded to Utah for the 2022-23 school year include the following:
- IDEA ARP: $25,634,595
- IDEA: $164,244,575
- Title I: $148,935,344
- Title IV-A: $5,887,415
How Are Your Resources Being Spent?
CENTEGIX protects over 11,500 schools across the country. We can protect your school, too.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™, featuring CrisisAlert™, accelerates your response to emergencies. We’ve built the CENTEGIX Safety Platform to support you in the single most critical factor of incident response: time. Because in an emergency, every second matters.
Discover federal resources to fund new safety and security initiatives in your district by exploring federal funding resources for school safety.
CENTEGIX Webinars
Leveraging Safety to Improve Teacher Retention and Recruitment | March 2024
Harm Mitigation: Keeping Your Staff Safe | March 2024
School Emergency Response: A Police Chief’s Perspective | April 2024
School Safety: Keep It Easy | April 2024
Hear from Our Educators
We engage with teachers and staff every day to understand how CrisisAlert supports them, and here’s what they’ve shared:
A student was having trouble breathing and her vision was beginning to black out. We don’t have service in our building and it can be difficult to get ahold of the office staff, so having something to immediately alert them of emergency was incredibly helpful in a very scary situation.
I had a student who was refusing to follow directions and became very defiant. This student was beginning to get aggressive. I used my badge to alert our campus security monitor to remove the student from the situation. It is a very useful tool when the response was as immediate as it was.
A student was having a severe panic attack, trouble speaking, crying, not able to answer my questions as to what was wrong with her. I used the device to call for administrative help and it worked like it was designed to. Help arrived in a matter of seconds. I saw firsthand how well it works.
The Safety Platform™ Meets Grant-Funded Safety Measures
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform is an emergency incident response safety system that features wearable panic buttons, digital mapping software, and reunification and visitor management capabilities and generates accurate, usable data. The Safety Platform solution uses visual strobes, digital messages, and automated intercom announcements to inform everyone of a campus-wide incident and to instruct them on actions they should take. The Safety Platform meets the security infrastructure needs the Utah school safety grants aim to address.
The Safety Platform features an analytics dashboard that assists administrators as they make safety and security decisions. A data set is generated when a staff member uses their wearable badge to request assistance. Administrators can better understand where and why and under what conditions. These administrative decisions, enabled by Platform data, contribute to the “positive and safe climate” that the safety grants aim to foster.
The CENTEGIX school safety platform provides robust and uninterrupted communication between staff members, administrators, first responders, and students. Unlike other emergency incident response systems, the Safety Platform’s technology precludes adoption and connectivity challenges. It runs on a dedicated IoT network; it’s not susceptible to Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity interruptions. And because the CrisisAlert mobile panic button is worn along with an ID badge, 100% of staff members use it. This high adoption rate means that every staff member at every location on campus can request help when they need it. CrisisAlert generates accurate location data for every alert, no matter where on campus. Therefore first responders know exactly where to go during an emergency. In many instances, this kind of rapid response can prevent tragedy.
These critical features of the CrisisAlert badge and Safety Blueprint from CENTEGIX ensure an immediate response:
Desktop takeover notifications for staff mean campus-wide alerts are never missed.
Location accuracy enables rapid response.
The system immediately connects the parties best prepared to handle the situation.
Wi-Fi and phone outages have no effect on the system.
Wearable security badges are easily accessible, lightweight, and wearable.
CENTEGIX Safety Platform can help school districts and LEAs enact these measures, making students and staff safer. The Safety platform school safety solution helps create a climate of safety by enabling staff members to request help immediately, from anywhere on campus, in any type of emergency. Under these conditions, teachers can focus on student needs, and students can focus on learning.
CENTEGIX is the leader in incident response solutions. Our Safety Platform is the fastest and easiest way for staff to request help in an emergency, from the everyday to the extreme. CENTEGIX innovates technology to empower and protect people, and leaders nationwide trust our safety solutions to provide peace of mind.
Championing Safe Schools with Educators and Educator Associations
Discover the Safety Platform
Safety solutions that prioritize speed for the best outcome.
Mapping and locating capabilities provide the precise location—of emergencies, visitors, and safety assets.
A visitor management system screens and locates visitors on your campus.
Protocol development to plan for rapid incident response.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert vs. Mobile Apps
CrisisAlert eliminates vulnerabilities related to app-only solutions and enables rapid incident response to all emergencies.
In an Emergency, You Need CrisisAlert™
Adverse situations can happen at any moment—from everyday crises such as medical emergencies, severe weather, and physical altercations to extreme situations that threaten your entire campus. The faster you get help to the right location, the better the outcome.
See how our CrisisAlert wearable mobile panic button empowers staff to get help instantly in an emergency.
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