Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship Program (Legacy)
Utah
The Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship Program provides eligible families of students with special needs with scholarships for qualifying expenses, including but not limited to tuition and fees. The 2024 Utah State legislature passed S.B. 44 merging the Special Needs Opportunity Scholarship, a tax credit scholarship, with the Carson Smith Scholarship program, a state-funded scholarship. The newly coined Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship Program gives Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) continued authority over all tax-credit scholarships and additional authority over all new state-funded scholarships. The legacy Carson Smith program is not allowed to enroll new students, although existing enrollees are allowed to continue their current participation or opt-in for participation in the newly created program, for which they are automatically approved for the 2024–2025 school year. The tax-credit scholarship, known as the Special Needs Opportunity Scholarship, is absorbed into the new program. Students previously enrolled and receiving a scholarship under the legacy Special Needs Program will be funded under the new program in the 2024–2025 school year, but they must update their eligibility information, including financial and disability verification.
Students Eligible
12%
Average Value
$1,891
Schools Participating
93
Student Eligibility
Public school students between ages 3 and 21 identified as disabled under federal disability rights law are eligible to receive vouchers, as well as students with special needs in private schools that served students with disabilities prior to participating in the program. Participation is limited by the amount of money appropriated each year to the fund ($7 million in 2020–2021), with applications subject to random lottery. Although a student technically must have been enrolled in a public school in the year prior to using a scholarship, the statute exempts students who both: (1) have a disability that would qualify for special education services in a public school and (2) are enrolled in or have obtained acceptance for admission to an eligible private school that has previously served students with disabilities. _(Last updated December 10, 2024)_
Use of Funds
Qualifying expenses include tuition and fees at a qualifying school. _(Last updated December 10, 2024)_
Funding Amount & Source
Vouchers are based on the state’s weighted pupil unit, an element of its school financing formula. Students who receive three or more hours of special education services per day get vouchers worth 2.5 times the weighted pupil unit, whereas students receiving fewer than three hours per day get vouchers worth 1.5 times the weighted pupil unit. In 2022–2023, those values amount to $9,522.50 and $5,713.50, respectively. The voucher may not exceed the private school’s actual tuition and fees. The average scholarship size is about $7,500 which is about 75% of the average expenditure per student at Utah’s district schools. _(Last updated December 10, 2024)_
Legal History
No legal challenges have been filed against the program. _(Last updated January 3, 2025)_
Program Timeline
Program Enacted
Legislation passed to create the program
Program Launched
Program began accepting applications
Last Updated
December 10, 2024