AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.

This bill would broadly define "character education" to include social-emotional learning frameworks, programs, and tools—such as those from CASEL or similar sources—that aim to shape students' attitudes, beliefs, identities, or values, and it would prohibit school administrators and teachers from grading, measuring, tracking, or coordinating character education for students, or from collecting, storing, or sharing character education data through any database, dashboard, or digital system. It would also strip references to "character development" and character education from several existing education laws, including the state's public education mission statement, health curriculum requirements, and professional development requirements for school staff, while leaving academic development and existing health topics like safety skills, human development, and refusal skills in place. The bill would direct the state auditor to accept and investigate complaints about violations, publish findings and non-compliant schools or districts on a public dashboard, withhold state funding from violating public entities, and refer entities with three or more violations within five years to the U.S. Department of Justice for possible civil rights violations. It would also create a legal right for parents to sue a public entity (but not an individual employee) over violations, with courts required to award attorney fees and costs to a parent who wins, and it would bar any state or local agency from writing rules to implement or interpret these new restrictions.