• New survey data shows strong support for more transparency in open enrollment data by ensuring compliance from school districts.
• A new report shows that while all districts share some information related to open enrollment, almost half don’t share information that is required to be posted on their website.

​Open enrollment is a public policy that allows families to enroll their students in a traditional public school outside of their residentially assigned school.

It’s a key part of a broad understanding of education choice – one where both public and private options are elevated and important.

Luckily, Utah law offers a robust open enrollment policy, so parents can take advantage of this choice if they desire. But there are reforms that could take Utah’s open enrollment landscape to the next level.

A brand-new Sutherland Institute report on open enrollment, in addition to survey data conducted between January and February 2025, gives insights on where Utah policymakers should head next.

Here are some key takeaways from the report and survey data.

Strong support for more transparency of open enrollment information

According to new Y2 Analytics survey data, 78% of registered voters in Utah support making information about open enrollment laws more transparent to parents by ensuring compliance from school districts. At the same time, 18% of Utah registered voters neither support nor oppose this reform, and only 4% oppose it. Basically, an overwhelming majority of Utah voters would like to have more transparency on open enrollment information.

When asked how important it is to Utah registered voters that the lawmakers address transparency of open enrollment information for parents by ensuring that school districts comply with open enrollment laws, 76% said it’s either very or somewhat important to them, while 23% said it’s either not very or not at all important to them.

Because parents are the consumers of education choice, they are the key audience for transparency information about their schools. In this way, a question about support for more transparency might be a no-brainer, but it’s helpful for policymakers to know that if they pursue improvement in this area, there is likely to be widespread support.

District website review found almost half are not posting what the law requires

One requirement placed on local school boards is that they must post certain pieces of information about open enrollment data on their websites, something we called an open enrollment “capacity report” for purposes of our review. After a website review starting last fall and further direct outreach efforts to all districts this year, we found that while all districts include some type of information related to open enrollment, there was a lack of information about these capacity reports. At the time of the report being published, only six school districts – Canyons, Duchesne, Jordan, Kane, Nebo and Provo – had a full capacity report found on their website. Now, another, Emery County School District, has updated its website to include a full capacity report, meaning a total of seven districts have all the information online required by statute. Another 14 have partial capacity report, while 20 do not have the capacity report.

Whether or not these reports are the most user-friendly way to share information with the public and parents is another question; however, based on what is already required by law, there is a lot of room for improvement. A good starting place to improve transparency is to ensure and encourage compliance with the law as it is already written.

While the full report shares further recommendations for improving Utah’s open enrollment law, the work at the district level is a first foundational step to improve transparency for parents, policymakers and the public. To read a copy of the report, download it here.