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USBE outlines refinements to Utah Fits All scholarship, including new amounts and provider oversight
Summary
USBE staff described statutory changes to the Utah Fits All (UFA) scholarship: differentiated scholarship amounts, tighter residency and income verification, limits on extracurricular spending, and new program oversight and provider separation requirements.
USBE staff walked LEAs and vendors through legislative refinements to the Utah Fits All (UFA) scholarship program enacted in 2025, and described operational changes the statute requires for USBE and local school systems.
Cliff (USBE) said HB455 made targeted refinements to strengthen residency verification (managed by the state tax commission), require oversight by USBE, and set differentiated scholarship amounts. He said contract management with the prior program manager (ACE Scholarships) will continue through May 15 to allow a transition via a new RFP process.
Key statutory changes The statute sets scholarship amounts at $8,000 for private school students; home‑school students ages 5–12 receive $4,000 and ages 13–18 receive $6,000. The law caps expenditures on extracurriculars and physical‑education activities at 20% of scholarship funds and allows families to roll over up to $2,000 of unused funds to the next year.
Data separation and reporting Cliff said the law requires UFA students’ data be kept separate from public school records in statewide collections. USBE plans to implement that separation for school year 2025–26 by assigning a distinct school number (planned as 993) to UFA enrollments; that school number will be added to state configuration for the 2025–26 year. USBE will not accept course grades or outcomes for UFA students in statewide transcript or reporting datasets except when a student returns to public education and the LEA chooses to accept prior credits under normal credit‑acceptance rules.
Participation, fees and liability LEAs that serve scholarship students must not deny participation in activities, athletics or extracurriculars solely because a student is a scholarship recipient. LEAs must publish a transparent fee schedule showing actual costs and must provide the same liability coverage to scholarship students that they provide to enrolled students.
Next steps USBE opened an RFP for a new program manager on the stated schedule and urged LEAs to consult the USBE UFA web page and FAQ for operational details and contacts.
