Pennsylvania will be the first state in the nation with state-wide deployment of a threat reporting system devised by people whose children were killed by a shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, officials announced Monday.

The program, called "Safe2Say," is expected to be up and running by early January. It will involve a mobile app, website and hotline which can be used to make anonymous reports of students and others showing signs they have the potential to carry out school violence.

Safe2Say was devised by Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit formed following the 2012 shooting to search for ways to prevent such violence.

Nichole Hockley, who founded the organization and whose six-year-old son Dylan died in the shooting, attended an event in Dauphin County on Monday to announce a partnership with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, which will run the hotline program.

She said the goal of the program is "to help someone before they make the tragic choice" to carry out an act of violence.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said tips to the hotline will go to specially-trained agents in his office who will analyze them and, when warranted, refer them to both school and police officials in the community where they arose. The local officials will then be responsible for following through with steps to avert an act of violence, using tactics such as extending counseling or mental health care to the potentially violent person.

Hockley's organization, meanwhile, will provide the mobile app and work with Sharpiro's office "to train students and teachers across Pennsylvania on signs to look for from potentially trouble individuals, and how to responsibly report them."

Shapiro said a goal is for young people to regard it as "cool" to report someone who may pose a threat of violence."

He and others stressed that, in case of someone who is directly threatening to hurt others or themselves, the situation should be reported with an immediate 911 call, rather than a report to the new hotline. They said the hotline should be used for situations such as when someone is engaging in bullying, talking about violence, or showing signs of being depressed or otherwise needing help.

According to Shapiro, someone making a tip won't have to give their name and there is no baseline level of detail they must be willing to provide. However, for the agents receiving the tips, "the key is to get as much information as we can," he said.

The hotline is part of an array of legislation and measures that have arisen in Pennsylvania following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. in February.

A series of information collecting hearings held as part of the effort found many school officials believe school staff is well-aware of the students who seem troubled and who might turn violent. However, they cited a major lack of resources such as counselors and mental health services needed to effectively intervene.

Asked about that on Monday, Shapiro said the Safe2Say program will "force [school and law enforcement officials] to work together" in a way that will head off violence.