The state’s $100 million school voucher program Utah Fits All has hit pause — leaving families in limbo as they wait to learn if they’ll receive a scholarship for the 2025-26 school year.
Utah families were supposed to find out by May 31 whether they’d receive a “Utah Fits All” scholarship for the next school year — but the voucher program’s manager, Odyssey, announced they’ll now have start the application process over again.
The state’s $100 million school voucher program Utah Fits All has hit pause — leaving families in limbo as they wait to learn if they’ll receive a scholarship for the 2025-26 school year.
Odyssey, the voucher program’s new manager, announced on its website that it is “re-running” the recent application cycle and requiring applicants to reapply.
It also said that, for now, no additional spending by current 2024-25 program participants will be authorized — despite state law allowing families to use their $8,000 scholarships through June 30.
The decision, Odyssey’s website states, stems from “incomplete” and “inconsistent” information provided by the program’s former manager, ACE Scholarships.
The state terminated its multi-year contract with ACE in March, citing “convenience.” Following a proposal period, the Utah State Board of Education hired Odyssey in early May to oversee the program’s second year.
But whether Utah Fits All will complete that second year remains uncertain after a judge in April ruled it unconstitutional but allowed it to continue operating while the state appeals.
“We understand that this may be frustrating, but we believe this is the best path forward to determine eligibility accurately,” Odyssey’s website states regarding the delays.
An updated timeline will be emailed out to all families by Friday morning, Odyssey officials told The Salt Lake Tribune in a statement Thursday.
Odyssey officially began managing the program May 16 and has spent the last two weeks reviewing the information ACE provided, according to the post on its website.
“Unfortunately, the information provided to Odyssey in many cases is incomplete, inconsistent, or lacks proper verification,” the website stated. “As such, Odyssey will need to take additional steps to ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance with the Utah Fits All law.”
Those steps, according to Odyssey, involve restarting the Utah Fits All application process and gathering additional information from those hoping to renew their 2024-25 scholarships in order to confirm their eligibility for the 2025-26 school year.
This year’s Utah Fits All application period opened to renewing applicants on Jan. 21 and to new applicants on March 3, during which ACE was still managing the program.
The application window collectivelyclosed May 1, just two weeks before Odyssey officially took over. Families were supposed to be notified by May 31 whether they had been awarded a scholarship.
“The data provided for eligibility determination was incomplete and it is not possible to make eligibility determinations at this time,” Odyssey’s website stated. “As one example, our records indicate that only a small percentage of year two applicants successfully completed income verification, a statutory requirement in the law.”
However, in a statement Wednesday, ACE officials said the data it provided was not incomplete, noting it had transferred “all data required under its original contract” to the Utah state school board. They also pointed to a law change passed midway through this year’s application cycle.
“A new UFA law introduced significant additional data requirements not included in ACE’s scope,” ACE officials said. “Responsibility for collecting this new data rests with the new program manager.”
Utah’s new Utah Fits All law
From the day the Utah Fits All application portal first opened in January to its closing in May, not only had the state selected a new program manager but lawmakers had also passed an overhaul of the law governing Utah Fits All.
An initial roughly 10,000 students received an $8,000 scholarship for the 2024-25 school year through the program. The money could be spent on a broad range of educational expenses — including homeschooling supplies, private school tuition and extracurricular activities — with few limitations.
The two requirements were that recipients could not be enrolled in public school full time and that preference be given to low-income families.
But HB455 introduced tiered scholarship amounts based on a student’s age and whether they are homeschooled, as well as new expense prohibitions and stricter income and residency verification requirements.
That law took effect May 7 – after the application cycle had ended and about a week before ACE stepped down.
Odyssey officials in their statement maintained that despite the law change during ACE’s tenure, the data provided was not “complete or accurate.”
“We are not accepting ACE’s eligibility determinations due to them not being able to verify income for all applicants,” Odyssey officials said. “Odyssey will be using the law to determine eligibility decisions for our own application cycle.”
Voucher spending freeze
Odyssey on its website said it would also be reviewing and “reconciling balances” for families who received scholarships for the 2024-25 school year.
ACE used an online platform called ClassWallet to distribute scholarship funds and track recipients’ spending. Families could also pay out of pocket for items and request reimbursement through ClassWallet.
“There is a large population for whom Odyssey cannot determine their current balance because there are thousands of pending reimbursements, receipts, and transactions, many of which were received by Odyssey as recently as May 29th,” Odyssey’s website stated.
Those pending purchases, it continued, require further analysis before any new spending for participating families can be authorized.
Odyssey said in its statement that it is not reviewing transactions that were already approved by ACE, just those that are outstanding. Families with any remaining balances from the 2024-25 school year will “be given the opportunity” to spend those dollars and will not lose the money “due to pushed timelines,” Odyssey officials said.
ACE said in its statement that it “delivered complete and timely records, including student balances and detailed transactions.”
“We are proud of the work we did and saddened to see the ongoing challenges now facing Utah families,” the statement read.