Utah Fits All Scholarship applicants forced to reapply for next school year
Jun 5, 2025, 2:00 PM | Updated: Jun 11, 2025, 10:38 am
FILE: A schedule a a home school parent worked out for her daughters in South Jordan on Aug. 13, 2021. (Laura Seitz/Deseret News)
(Laura Seitz/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Families who rely on the Utah Fits All Scholarship program are now on pins and needles — waiting to see if they’ll have the money they need for the 2025-2026 school year.
The program allows students to get between $4,000 and $8,000 for costs to help them attend private school or homeschool, depending on their preference.
Applications for the coming school year were due on May 1, and families were supposed to be notified by May 31 if they were getting a scholarship or not.
But Odyssey, the new company administering the program, announced on its website that it will be re-running this year’s application cycle due to information it said was “incomplete, inconsistent, or lacks proper verification.”
That information, it said, was handed off to them by the previous program manager, ACE Scholarships. Odyssey took over the administration reins from ACE on May 16, according to the Utah State Board of Education.
Odyssey said the decision to require families to reapply for the 2025-2026 scholarships was to “ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance with the Utah Fits All law.”
Right now, the company has not outlined a timetable for when families will be notified whether they’ll be awarded scholarships for the coming school year.
“We are committed to making sure eligibility for the Utah Fits All program is correct,” said an Odyssey spokesperson in a statement to KSL NewsRadio.
“Unfortunately, based on the data received from the previous provider, we were not able to make proper eligibility determinations with any confidence. The data set provided was inconsistent, incomplete, contained discrepancies and was not compliant with the new law. We are taking the appropriate time needed to conduct an accurate eligibility cycle and therefore timelines have been adjusted accordingly. We appreciate the patience of Utah’s families as we work through this transition period – we are confident that this short term change will facilitate the best path forward for the long-term health of the program,” the statement concluded.
What’s next for Utah Fits All?
Students who received scholarships through the program can still use their awarded money through June 30, according to the Utah Education Fits All website.
Parents with questions are encouraged to contact Odyssey through their support website.
The future of the Utah Fits All Scholarship program as a whole is in limbo too, after a Utah judge ruled the program was unconstitutional.
The court is allowing the program to continue while the state appeals the ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.
