The Utah Fits All Scholarship has prompted a lot of discussion in recent months, both from critics and champions. Some have challenged its constitutionality in court or raised issues from a recent audit, while others share the program’s benefits, most notably parents who have found help for their children.

Below are experiences from two families that applied for and were awarded Utah Fits All Scholarships, including one that declined them.

For lawmakers, the priority going forward should be to fully fund the Utah Fits All Scholarship program. They should also consider how households with multiple applicants can use the scholarship more effectively, allowing more families to access the program’s benefits.

A story of success with Utah Fits All Scholarship

In our request for stories from those using the Utah Fits All Scholarship, we regularly hear how the program has blessed families in specific ways, including those with unique challenges that impact learning.

Among them, we received a story from Tammy Flake, a Utah Fits All Scholarship mother of five, who shared how the program has benefited her children, particularly her son with ADHD, who has now come to love learning.

“I have so many reasons why we applied for the program and so many perspectives on how it’s helped my five children so far. To start, our third child had been diagnosed with hyper ADHD. After his public teachers couldn’t handle his behavior in class, he had to go on medication.” Flake said, “Since he’s been able to be homeschooled and using Utah Fits All, his education has improved. He is in love with learning and has not had to be on medication.”

Her other children have benefited from the program as well. She said, “Our kids have really enjoyed the structure of our homeschool being independent and their schedules and making sure they get their responsibilities done.” Tammy added, “I love seeing my kids excited to learn.”

A challenge with program logistics

Another Utah Fits All Scholarship mother, Kayla, a former military wife and current stay-at-home mom of four, notes that one limitation of the scholarship is how many siblings have access and what that means for family life.

“Our family has been trying for the last three years to receive the Utah Fits All Scholarship; however, it hasn’t really worked out for us,” Kayla said. “The first year we didn’t get it. The second year was a little chaotic. We received one scholarship, and I still have four kids. I turned that one down because I had one in junior high, three in elementary, and the school of our choice is out of another city, so we would be driving back and forth to three different places.”

Kayla shared that “Two months later, another scholarship was awarded, and I was still in the same boat. I couldn’t bring all four kids to the place that I wanted to go. We turned down that second scholarship that we received because, again, I couldn’t take all four of my kids to the same school, and I didn’t quite understand how it all worked.”

“Again, this year we applied, and we haven’t received the scholarship as of yet for this year as well,” she added.

While the scholarship experience hasn’t worked out yet for them, she is looking to the future.

“We sincerely appreciate the Legislature and the state and the governor for funding something like this to give parents a choice on where they can take their kids to school,” Kayla said. “We just hope that you can fully fund this program so parents out there like us can have that choice for all of their kids, not just one or two, to be able to choose their education for them.”

The current law prioritizes siblings of eligible renewal applicants (53F-6-402 (6), and it also processes multiple applications from the same households (53F-6-402 (13)) as a single unit to help address this exact type of challenge. In fact, the law expressly allows parents to the “decline the partial award and remain on the waitlist for a future opportunity when sufficient funds become available to serve all children in the household.” Additional funding would allow full sibling groups to be awarded scholarships so families like Kayla’s are able to use them.

Conclusion

Parents of the Utah Fits All Scholarship find answers to their children’s unique challenges that span outside of the classroom but absolutely affect it. We hope the program continues to receive additional funding to help more families have access to it. If you’d like to share your story with us, check out this link.