Is there a way to tell if a process model/ task is currently already running for

Take a look at the Content Details by UUID plugin:
forum.appian.com/.../summary

You can use the getContentDetailsByID() function to determine if something already exists for the given ID

fyi, the plugin above is a great tool to use during code moves between environments. When the inspect or import fails it usually (not always) displays the uuid of the object that the failed import was dependent on. You can create a fast temporary (no need to save it) expression on the exporting server =getcontentdetailsbyuud("uuid") and it will tell you what the uuid points at, i.e. rule XYZ, cdt 123, or process model 567, etc. No need to deploy the plugin to production and it only takes seconds to lookup the missing objects to help with your imports so you can go back and add the missing dependencies to the export application.

I am not sure I fully understand what that plugin provides...I tried using it at the beginning of my process model with the id variable in a Script Task setting the value to a parameter and the value I get regardless of whether or not the process model has been started already for that particular ID or not is

Content Object [Name: Leader Message Pictures, UUID: SYSTEM_FOLDER_LEADER_MESSAGE_PICTURES, Parent: System Knowledge Center, Parent Id: 2, Type: Folder]

How does it tell me if a task is already created?

Why not just create a task report and use the "Execute Process Report" service to look for the task associated with your process?

thank you steveh! I found the way to do it through the Execute Process Report