Scholarship funds are awarded to eligible students by CFEF for the purpose of paying for qualified educational expenses. A qualified scholarship expenses means an expense that a parent or eligible student incurs in the education of the eligible student for goods or services that a qualifying private school or homeschool
The Utah state law governing the CSOS program requires that CFEF verify each applicant’s eligibility in key areas. The scholarship application will request a variety of information from the parent or guardian that must verify eligibility for a scholarship and determine the amount of a scholarship. The criteria below will
PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS The CFEF platform allows qualifying schools to upload invoices for tuition and fees for attending scholarship students. Private school tuition payments will be made via a secure ACH process directly to qualifying schools on behalf of scholarship students as follows: A scholarship award of $9,348 will be
Violation of reimbursement policies may result in termination from the program and forfeiture of scholarship funds and repayment of any scholarship funds expended Any items purchased with scholarship funds must be used for specific learning projects, and may not be used for resale or gifting purposes (this includes
Upon acceptance of a scholarship, the parent assumes full fiscal responsibility for the education of the scholarship recipient. The number of scholarships awarded in a given year varies based upon the amount of funds raised and the funds appropriated from the state. Funds will be disbursed based upon the following
A scholarship applicant is not eligible for a tuition scholarship if their parent or legal guardian is an administrator or board member of the qualifying school they will attend Children of employees of a qualifying private school are eligible to apply and receive a scholarship if they are approved A
CFEF application will contain the following acknowledgement to be made by the parent or guardian of the student applying: I acknowledge that: A private school or home school may not provide the same level of disability services that are provided in a public school. I will assume full financial responsibility
The CFEF application is required annually from all new applicants, all continuing students, and all students switching from the legacy Carson Smith program. Scholarship applications can be found at this link. Please adhere to the schedule posted below. CFEF will accept applications for the CSOS program after the closing dates
History The Utah state legislature passed original legislation in 2019 called the Special Needs Opportunity Scholarship program and updated this legislation in 2024 by merging the program with the legacy Carson Smith Scholarship program. The new program is called the Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship (CSOS). The legislation requires that a
