A garage door status monitoring and control system includes a motor operable to move a garage door to alternate garage door positions, an encoder associated with the motor and configured to generate a pulse stream comprising motor signal pulses indicative of movement of the motor, a door control module with a first microprocessor operatively coupled to the encoder via a first path and configured to receive the pulse stream, and a garage door operator having a door controller with a second microprocessor operatively coupled to the encoder via a second path and configured to receive the pulse stream from the encoder independent of the door control module. The first microprocessor is configured to generate a digital door status indicative of one of the alternate garage door positions in response to the pulse stream. The garage door operator provides supervisory control over movement of the motor based upon the pulse stream.