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

Utah's special education funding programs would be reorganized under this bill, taking several programs currently grouped together in state law—including the Special Education Self-Contained Program, the Self-Contained Support Add-on Program, the Preschool Program, the Extended School Year Program, and special education impact aid—and giving each its own separate section of code with clearer definitions and funding formulas. The bill would require the State Board of Education to create specific accounting procedures and rules for how school districts and charter schools (called local education agencies, or LEAs) identify eligible students, report data, and spend these funds, and it would direct the state board to distribute money to LEAs specifically to serve students in state care. LEAs would be allowed to use up to 25% of the funds they receive through the Self-Contained Support Add-on Program for general education costs rather than spending all of it exclusively on special education. The bill also updates the special educator stipend program by clarifying how the state calculates funding units for those stipends, and it repeals several older appropriation-related provisions that are being replaced by the new, separately organized sections.