Iowa’s Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to develop an app that will prevent its teens from texting while driving, according to a press release Thursday. The state’s proposal for the app involves several sophisticated features, including a Web portal for parents to track what kids are doing on their phones and where they are. The app will also give reports on driving behavior and provide a system that will alert parents when certain parameters are exceeded—at a significant cost to the state.

Aegis Mobility is adopting its TeenSafer property for Iowa’s “TXTL8R" program. The app’s most basic functionality will be to block texts when the phone detects that it’s moving faster than 15 miles per hour from GPS input, meaning that the GPS must be active all of the time. The app will also auto-respond with a custom message to incoming texts.

In addition to allowing parents to track their kids’ routes and activity, the app will send notifications if the apps’ text-blocking feature is disabled, the app is deleted, the teen stops too fast (decelerating more than 7 mph per second), or the teen runs a stop sign. The app will keep reports and driving trips on record for six months.

The app will technically be usable by anyone of any age, but Iowa intends to foot the bill of $4 per month for the Web portal for any users between the ages of 14 and 17. Based on an estimate of 100,000 Iowa drivers that age, the Department of Transportation estimates that about 10,000 people will be able to use the app. This amounts to a cost of $192 per teen using the app until they turn 18, at total project cost of $480,000 per year.

Distracted driving results in 10 deaths, 1,000 injuries, and 1,800 crashes each year in Iowa, according to a letter from the state governor's traffic safety bureau.

Aegis Mobility plans to launch its TXTL8R app in January 2014.