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What is the Carson Smith Scholarship Opportunity Program?

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

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2026-27 Scholarship Award Amounts

Scholarship award for students in kindergarten through grade 12 The scholarship amount for the 2026-27 school year is $12,175. Scholarship award for Pre-school Students The scholarship amount for the 2026-27 school year is as follows: Part-time Preschool students: $2,600 Full-time Preschool students: $4,800 Scholarship award for Homeschool Students in kindergarten

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Reimbursement of Funds

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

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Prohibited Uses of Scholarship Funds

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

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Awarding Scholarship Funds

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

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Conflict of Interest Verification

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

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Parental Acknowledgment

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

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