‘Discrepancies’ indicate dozens of Utah voucher recipients are enrolled in public school as lawmakers push for more voucher funding

As Utah lawmakers push to further fund the state’s $82 million school voucher program, Utah’s education leaders are quickly trying to understand why at least 177 students known to have been awarded $8,000 vouchers seem to be enrolled in public schools, which is prohibited under state law.

Any student who receives a taxpayer-funded “Utah Fits All” scholarship cannot be enrolled in public school, whether that be a traditional public school or charter, according to the voucher program’s website.

It’s OK for a student to apply while still enrolled in public school, but upon receipt and acceptance, they must unenroll before the start of their next school year, when they can start using the money — which is meant for private school tuition, homeschooling costs and other educational expenses.

It’s not yet clear why the 177 voucher recipients that state school board officials have so far identified seem to be currently enrolled in public school. The “discrepancies in enrollment data” could be explained in multiple ways, Utah State Board of Education spokesperson Ryan Bartlett said.

For instance, a student’s family may have received a Utah Fits All scholarship, used all or some of the funds, and then later decided to voluntarily withdraw from the program and instead enroll the child in public school.

It’s also possible a student received a scholarship but decided not to use it, moving forward with public school enrollment without touching any of the voucher money.

Should either explanation apply, it remains unclear whether families notified the organization that the state selected to manage its voucher program — the Alliance for Choice in Education, or “ACE” — of their decision.

If so, it also remains unclear whether ACE did not follow up with families to either close certain student accounts or instead offer rejected scholarships to the next eligible student on the waitlist, or whether ACE did not separately realize the enrollment discrepancies. USBE provides public school enrollment data to ACE, which ACE references to determine eligibility, according to the program’s website.

Regardless of the situation, the enrollment discrepancies prompted USBE’s deputy superintendent of operations, Scott Jones, to email school districts and charters on Jan. 23 to “verify and clarify the status of students who appeared in both public school enrollment records and [the Utah Fits All] program.”

“The Utah State Board of Education continues to see conflicting enrollment statuses with Utah Fits All Scholarship (UFA) recipients in public schools,” Jones’ email read. It included a list of students who were awarded scholarship funds and appear to remain active in the state’s enrollment system.

“Please contact these parents and unenroll these students if they have chosen to participate in the UFA program,” the email continued, giving districts and charters until Jan. 31 to respond to the letter with the “status of these individual students.”

What have officials been able to determine?

Bartlett said so far, the majority of the 177 identified cases seem to be instances where a family was awarded a scholarship and opted to instead keep their child enrolled in public school but never formally declined with ACE.

“What we have right now is a large number of cases where people just decided not to accept the funding at all after they received it,” Bartlett said Tuesday.

Another common scenario involves families who accepted the scholarship, decided to leave the program later on, reenrolled their child in public school and, again, didn’t notify ACE, Bartlett said. State law allows families to do this without penalty, as long as the funds were used appropriately.

It also is possible that students may be dual enrolled, meaning a voucher recipient was spending their awarded funds while also attending public school. But for the most part, Bartlett said, officials are instead finding unused scholarship dollars.

ACE, which refers to the state voucher program as an “education savings account,” said in a statement that should officials identify any instances in which a student is determined to have been dual enrolled, that student’s account will be suspended while ACE conducts an investigation.

“If students are confirmed to be enrolled in public school, their accounts are closed,” ACE officials said.

What’s the solution?

To assess these discrepancies, ACE said it has “developed a USBE-approved review process” meant to assist families and schools in resolving the cases.

Once the enrollment status of a student is determined, any unused funds can then be reallocated to families on the waitlist, Bartlett said.

“Whenever a new program rolls out, there are going to be some things that you have to work through ... and work to improve it as you go forward,” Bartlett said Tuesday.

The same day, Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, said state lawmakers are hoping to allocate more money to the voucher program.

“There’s certainly a demand for more funding,” Cullimore said. “Obviously, with the budget circumstances as they are, it’s just a matter of what can we find. But there will be a request for more funding.”

The Republican-led voucher program was approved in just 10 days during the 2023 legislative session. It became the largest school voucher program in state history, with an initial allocation of $42.5 million. But that allocation was nearly doubled last year to $82 million in a move that lawmakers said was meant to accommodate additional interest.

That updated total was enough to provide roughly 10,000 Utah students with an $8,000 scholarship for the 2024-25 school year.

The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union is currently challenging the Utah Fits All program in court.

In a lawsuit filed last May, the union argues the program is unconstitutional because it uses income tax dollars to fund vouchers meant to cover private school and homeschooling expenses. Third District Judge Laura Scott heard arguments in December but has not yet issued a ruling.

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