In 2023, Utah passed the Utah Fits All Scholarship. Starting in fall of 2024, the state will send a portion of per-pupil funding directly to families to purchase education products and services for their students. Fund amounts can be up to $8,000 per student, per year, and are deposited into a scholarship account parents will access through an online portal. The scholarship covers private school tuition, tutoring, education programs, curriculum, and more!

It’s for every child, in every zip-code, from every financial background, with every learning style.

Here’s the law if you want to read it: H.B. 215 Funding for Teacher Salaries + Optional Education Opportunities

Every child who is awarded a scholarship will receive $8,000 from funds appropriated by the Utah legislature. The exciting news is that each year that scholarship amount will automatically increase based on what’s called the CPI (Consumer Price Index), or five-year rolling average inflationary factor as defined by the law.

Well, this is the exciting part, there are so many options! The Utah Fits All Scholarship is the most customizable education program out there!

Here is a list of some of the many ways the Utah Fits All Scholarship can be used. Parents can combine services and goods for a truly customized fit.

• tuition and fees of a qualifying provider, such as private schools or microschools
• tutoring services
• fees for after-school or summer education programs
• textbooks, curriculum, or other instructional materials, including any supplemental materials or associated online instruction
• educational software and applications
• supplies or other equipment related to a scholarship student’s educational needs
• computer hardware or other technological devices that are intended primarily for a scholarship student’s educational needs
• educational services for students with disabilities from a licensed or accredited practitioner or provider, including occupational, behavioral, physical, audiology, or speech-language therapies
• fees and instructional materials at a technical college
• fees for qualifying exams or prep courses such as norm-referenced, AP, industry certification exams, college or university admission
• contracted services that the program manager approves and that a LEA (public school) provides, including individual classes, after-school tutoring services, transportation, or fees or costs associated with participation in extracurricular activities
• expenses related to extracurricular activities, field trips, educational supplements, and other educational experiences
• ride fees or fares for a fee-for-service transportation provider to transport the scholarship student to and from a qualifying provider, not to exceed $750 in a given school year
• any other expense for a good or service that a parent or scholarship student incurs in the education of the scholarship student, and the program manager approves, in accordance with statute.

Remember, all allowable expenses must be explicitly for the education of the scholarship recipient. Therefore, the scholarship includes accountability tools to protect taxpayers and ensure the scholarship is used for the intended purpose—To educate Utah students!

According to statute, to be an eligible service provider, a private program or service shall provide to the program manager:

• a federal employer identification number.
• the provider’s address and contact information.
• a description of each program or service the provider proposes to offer directly to a scholarship student; and any other information as required by the program manager.
• shall comply with the anti discrimination provisions of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000d.
• may not act as a consultant, clearing house, or intermediary that connects a scholarship student with or otherwise facilitates the student’s engagement with a program or service that another entity provides.

There are still details of implementing the scholarship that are awaiting the selection of the Program Manager. Once selected, the Program Manager must provide an online portal for the parent of a scholarship student to access the scholarship student’s account, ensuring that scholarship funds in the account are readily available to the student. 

The Program Manager will also establish an approval process for providers to become qualified. Qualified providers selected by the parent are paid directly within the online portal from the student’s account through a funds transfer to ensure accountability. Additionally, parents can have eligible expenses pre-approved and/or reimbursed for services or goods purchased from a provider who has not previously gone through the approval process to be added to the list of qualified providers.

The law explains payment information this way:

The Program Manager shall contract with one or more private entities to develop and implement a commercially viable, cost-effective, and parent-friendly system to:

• establish scholarship accounts.
• maximize payment flexibility by allowing:
  • for payment of services to qualifying providers using scholarship funds by electronic or online funds transfer. 
  • pre-approval of a reimbursement to a parent for a good that is a scholarship expense.

The Program Manager may not: 

• approve a scholarship expense for a service that a qualifying provider provides unless the program manager determines that the scholarship student or the scholarship student’s parent incurred the expense in the education of the scholarship student, or
• reimburse a scholarship expense for a service or good that a provider that is not a qualifying provider provides unless the parent or scholarship student submits a receipt that shows the cost and type of service or good and the name of provider; and the program manager determines that the parent or scholarship student incurred the expense in the education of the scholarship student

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A service provider must:

• Submit an application to the program manager; and agree to not refund, rebate, or share scholarship funds with scholarship students or scholarship students’ parents in any manner except remittances or refunds to a scholarship account in accordance with this part and procedures that the program manager establishes.
• A private program or service approved under this section that changes ownership shall cease operation as an eligible service provider until:
  • the program or service submits a new application to the program manager.
  • the program manager approves the new application.
  • demonstrate that the private program or service continues to meet the eligibility requirements outlined in statute.

Yes. The program manager shall adopt policies that maximize the number of eligible service providers, including accepting new providers throughout the school year, while ensuring education programs or services provided through the program meet student needs and otherwise comply with statute.

The program manager shall, if the private program or service meets the eligibility requirements of this section:

• recognize the private program or service as an eligible service provider and approve a private program or service’s application to receive scholarship funds on behalf of a scholarship student.
• make available to the public a list of eligible service providers approved.

The following is clarified in statute. You are encouraged to review the various sections of the law for a fuller understanding here.

A qualifying provider:

• has a right to maximum freedom from unlawful governmental control in providing for the educational needs of a scholarship student who attends or engages with the qualifying provider.
• is not an agent of the state by virtue of the provider’s acceptance of payment from a scholarship account in accordance with this part.

Except as provided in Section 53F-6-403 regarding qualifying providers, or Section 53F-6-409 regarding eligible service providers, a program manager may not require a qualifying provider to alter the qualifying provider’s creed, practices, admissions policies, hiring practices, or curricula in order to accept scholarship funds.

A Program Manager will be selected by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) to run and manage the program. They will be selected through a standard business practice called an RFP (Request for Proposal) process governed by Utah’s procurement code. The RFP must be issued no later than the statutorily required date of September 15. It will be an open application process. Final selection is scheduled to take place at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Utah State Board of Education on November 2, 2023.

The contract between the Program Manager and the USBE cannot impose any requirements on the program manager that are not essential to the basic administration of the program.

What will be required of the Program Manager? 

The Program Manager must be a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status in order to apply. They will be required to comply with all accountability measures and responsibilities as outlined in the law, including but not limited to, not being permitted to harvest data for the purpose of reproducing or distributing the data, protection and confidentiality of personal information, no involvement in guiding or directing any curriculum standards, forbidden from receiving donations from outside sources, and required to provide the most flexibility to providers and to students to accommodate their unique learning needs. The Program Manager must implement the program as the law dictates.