“If we can’t put our kids on a school bus and truly believe that they’re going to be safe, then nothing else matters,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in his State of the State Address, a year ago this week.

“Our goal is simple – to make New Hampshire’s schools the safest in the nation,” he added.

The Governor’s School Safety Preparedness Task Force worked to devise a set of recommendations for schools, local leaders and policy makers to look at in 2018. There were 59 recommendations, which included creating a 24-hour anonymous tip line for students, teachers and parents, creating a one-stop resource center for schools, implementing a school-based “See Something Say Something” campaign and expanding mental health resources.

The Task Force notes in the New Hampshire School Safety Preparedness Task Report that the recommendations were directed to New Hampshire’s state and local leaders, along with school administrators and staff, students, parents, and first responders, “on making New Hampshire’s schools the safest they can be while fostering growth and an atmosphere that is conducive to the educational, emotional, and physical well-being of staff and students.”

The state has recently taken action to implement recommendation 43, which calls to “establish a system to alert parents, staff, and non-first responders during an emergency to quickly and efficiently notify them of current incident and safety information.”

Ping4 Inc., a technology company based in Nashua with a goal of delivering important information dependably, recently took that step in enhancing school safety, by creating a cell phone alert system. The Safety. Alerts. For. Education. (S.A.F.E.) app is free and is now available to download at the Apple App Store and via Google Play. It launched in October, but the company has recently set up accounts for all New Hampshire schools and is encouraging parents to sign up.

New Hampshire Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut said, “While it may be that not all schools decide to use the Ping4 platform, as there are other products in the market, it is important that all schools get some platform set up and have broad parent sign up so that we can have the appropriate response in the event of an emergency.”

Officials said the application uses geo-fencing technology via GPS, which allows administrators and law enforcement to instantly and simultaneously alert students and staffers of a threat via their cellphones.

The app has various features. Users can customize alerts with up to 2,000 characters in the body. Photos and videos can be attached to each alert, anonymous tips can be made in response to an alert, and app users can share an alert to their personal Facebook and Twitter, through email and text.

The mission of S.A.F.E. is to eliminate or reduce casualties in active shooter or life-threatening incidents. As noted by the company on its website, “A few seconds of warning can be the difference between life and death.”