Utah House committee green lights 2 school safety bills

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Legislature last year passed a sweeping bill focused on school security, and that bill’s successor unanimously advanced through a Utah House committee Wednesday.

HB40, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, and chairman of the School Security Task Force, is the “follow up to the bills that we’ve worked on in school security for the past three years.”

Among other things, last year’s school safety bill strengthened armed security in Utah’s schools, directed school buildings to install emergency communication systems and panic buttons, required threat reporting if employees are aware of a particular safety concern, and linked the state’s SafeUT Crisis Line to Utah’s intelligence database.

While continuing to build out and improve these measures remains a priority, there are a few key aspects of HB40 that Wilcox touched on during Wednesday’s hearing.

The new bill beefs up certain required safety training, increases school building safety standards, and clarifies the conditions a school employee must meet to also serve as an armed guardian.

Another element of HB40 is the notion of cybersecurity in schools, especially considering recent data breaches that have impacted Utah.

Granite School District in December announced it was the victim of a data breach that impacted “all current and former Granite School District students” — about 450,000 total.

Just this month, student data from the Salt Lake City, Weber, Cache, Duchesne County, Iron County and Washington County school districts was compromised following a cyberattack on the popular PowerSchool online education platform.

“We’ve had some significant breaches. It’s super clear to us that we need to change the way we’re approaching cybersecurity in our schools in the state,” Wilcox said. “You’re talking hundreds of thousands of student records that have been compromised.”

Earlier in January, the School Security Task Force heard a presentation from Fortinet, a California-based cybersecurity company, to learn about some of the best practices when it comes to protecting valuable, sensitive data.

Kevin Lopez, major account manager at Fortinet and former IT director of network infrastructure for the state of Utah, told the task force that cybersecurity isn’t just doing one thing or having a single wall of defense. Instead, Lopez said it’s “a mindset, and it must be considered in all digital environments.”

With that in mind, Wilcox on Wednesday said HB40 directs state security chief Matt Pennington to establish “minimum cybersecurity standards” for Utah’s schools.

“We have to do a better job of intentionally structuring what our cybersecurity is going to look like here … what those basic, minimum standards need to be, and making sure that we’re not, for convenience or lack of planning or resources, putting ourselves in a situation where this is a virtual certainty that we’re compromising (data),” Wilcox said earlier this month.

HB40 also requires school districts to submit new safety needs assessments by Oct. 15 detailing what types of security measures they do or do not have in place. The first batch of assessments was submitted at the end of last year and looked at nine specific security standards.

According to the results of the latest assessment, two-thirds of schools across the state reported having anywhere from three to six of the standards already in place. More than 21% had seven to nine standards in place.

Roughly 10% of Utah’s schools only met one or two of the safety standards, according to the results.

Following the most recent safety assessment, the School Security Task Force voted earlier this month to supply first-aid kits and bleed kits to all Utah schools, and to start getting panic alert devices into classrooms.

Pennington told lawmakers he’s met with law enforcement and education officials about efforts to increase school safety.

“I’m happy to say that everyone seems to be supportive. It’s just the unknown of how we’re going to get it done, but we’re making progress every day,” Pennington said. “I think HB40 is just another step toward that.”

During the same hearing Wednesday, the House committee also voted unanimously to advance HB128, which clarifies that both adults and minors can be prosecuted for possessing a dangerous weapon on school property.