1. The basic rule for any Utah Fits All expense
Utah law (Utah Code 53F-6-401(20)(a)) defines a “scholarship expense” as an expense “that a parent or scholarship student incurs in the education of the scholarship student for a service or goods that a qualifying provider provides.” In plain terms, three things need to be true:
- It is for your scholarship student’s education. Each child’s funds are for that child; Odyssey says “Funds cannot be pooled or transferred between siblings.”
- It comes from a qualifying provider (a provider approved for the program) or, if you pay first and ask for reimbursement from a seller that isn’t approved, it meets the conditions in Utah Code 53F-6-402(7)(c)(ii), including a receipt that shows the cost, the type of good or service and the provider’s name. Everything sold in the Odyssey Marketplace comes from approved providers.
- It passes Odyssey’s test: “whether an item is inherently educational versus a general-purpose item.”
Example (for illustration): a reading curriculum is inherently educational. A sofa for the homeschool room is general-purpose furniture, and furniture is on Odyssey’s ineligible list.
Odyssey applies the rule through two lists: an Eligible Expense Guide (updated September 22, 2026) and an Ineligible Expense Guide (updated September 4, 2026). Both are updated from time to time, so check them before a large purchase.
2. What Utah Fits All covers
This table brings together what Utah law and Odyssey’s 2026-27 guides say about the main categories. It is a summary, not Odyssey’s complete list.
| Category | What the official sources say |
|---|---|
| Tutoring | Named in Utah law (“tutoring services”) and listed first among services in Odyssey’s Eligible Expense Guide. No cap or price limit. |
| Private-school tuition and fees | Eligible. They are also the only expenses Odyssey reimburses retroactively. |
| Curriculum and educational technology | Odyssey names “curriculum, educational technology, tutoring, music lessons” among things families buy in the Marketplace. Computers have a cap (see section 5). |
| Music lessons | Named by Odyssey as a Marketplace purchase. Buying a musical instrument is not covered. |
| Educational therapies | Services for students with disabilities from a “licensed or accredited practitioner or provider,” such as occupational, behavioral, physical, audiology or speech-language therapies. |
| Disability assistive devices | A separate category in Odyssey’s expense lists. |
| Classes and services from a public school | Allowed as LEA “contracted services … including individual classes, after-school tutoring services,” as long as the student does not enroll (see section 6). |
| Transportation | Eligible, with a cap (see section 5). |
| Extracurricular activities and physical education | Eligible, each with a percentage limit (see section 5). |
Your child’s award is the overall limit: for the 2026-27 school year, up to $8,000 for a private-school student, up to $4,000 for a home-based student aged 5–11 on September 1, or up to $6,000 for one aged 12–18. See our 2026-27 amounts guide for how those figures are set.
3. Tutoring: covered, with no cap
Tutoring is clearly covered. Utah law lists “tutoring services” in the definition of a scholarship expense (Utah Code 53F-6-401(20)(a)(iii)). Odyssey’s Eligible Expense Guide starts its list of services with “Tutoring Services,” “Tutoring” is one of the Odyssey Marketplace offering categories, and Odyssey’s purchase-limits article sets no cap or price limit on tutoring. Your child’s whole award could go to tutoring if that is what they need most; the award can also cover curriculum and other eligible services.
A few points worth knowing if your child learns differently:
- Online tutoring counts. Odyssey asks providers to state each offering’s delivery method: “in-person, virtual, or hybrid.”
- The provider must teach your child itself. Odyssey says services “must be provided by the provider themselves; no middlemen.”
- Prices must be fair. Utah law says Marketplace prices “shall reflect fair market value,” and Odyssey says no additional charges can be added on top of a provider’s listed Marketplace price.
- A parent can’t be the paid tutor. Utah law bars paying a parent to teach their own child (Utah Code 53F-6-402(7)(d)).
How you pay matters as much as what you buy. Our guide to paying for tutoring with Utah Fits All compares the Odyssey Marketplace with reimbursement.
4. Tutoring vs. “Educational Therapies”
Utah law treats tutoring and therapy as two different kinds of expense, and Odyssey follows the same split:
| Tutoring | Educational Therapies | |
|---|---|---|
| In Utah law | “tutoring services” (53F-6-401(20)(a)(iii)) | “educational services for students with disabilities from a licensed or accredited practitioner or provider, including occupational, behavioral, physical, audiology, or speech-language therapies” (53F-6-401(20)(a)(x)) |
| In Odyssey’s guide | “Tutoring Services,” listed under Services | A separate “Educational Therapies” list: Occupational, Behavioral, Physical, Audiology, Speech-Language |
| What it is | Academic instruction in subjects such as reading, writing and math | Therapy from a licensed or accredited practitioner or provider |
Why it matters: if your child needs speech-language or occupational therapy, look for a licensed or accredited practitioner in the Educational Therapies category; a tutor is not a substitute. If your child needs academic help, such as reading support for dyslexia, math foundations, or help with organization and assignments, that is tutoring. Both are eligible expenses, so one award can cover both.
We stay in the tutoring category. Our teachers are certified in special education and provide academic tutoring only; we don’t offer therapy, speech services, ABA, diagnosis or evaluations.
5. Purchase limits and caps for 2026-27
Odyssey’s purchase-limits article (updated September 6, 2026) sets these limits:
| Item | 2026-27 limit |
|---|---|
| Tablets, laptops and desktops | $1,500, and one of the three every 3 years |
| Monitors, cameras, printers, 3D printers, headphones and sewing machines | Each has a price cap listed in Odyssey’s article |
| Transportation | $750 |
| Extracurricular activities | 20% (also in Utah Code 53F-6-401(20)(c)) |
| Physical education | 20% (also in Utah Code 53F-6-401(20)(c)) |
| Tutoring | No cap or price limit |
Odyssey’s article explains how each limit is applied to an account. Check it before you buy technology or plan several activities, and look at the “updated” date, since Odyssey revises its guides during the year.
6. Classes and services from a public school
A Utah Fits All student can’t be enrolled in a public school, charter school or school district, not even part-time. But the law does let families buy certain services from a public school without enrolling. A local education agency (LEA: a school district or charter school) can be a qualifying provider if it ensures “the scholarship student does not enroll in the LEA,” and the law lists LEA “contracted services … including individual classes, after-school tutoring services” as scholarship expenses (Utah Code 53F-6-408(6)(c) and 53F-6-401(20)(a)(xi)).
USBE adds two cautions. If a student is using Utah Fits All funding with an approved provider in the public school system, “the student needs to identify themselves as a UFA student to the school/district.” And on the no-enrollment rule, it says: “Keep in mind that any activity with a public school (in-person or online) may create similar situations.” Ask Odyssey before you arrange anything with a public school.
7. What Utah Fits All does not cover
Utah law (Utah Code 53F-6-401(20)(b)) and Odyssey’s Ineligible Expense Guide rule out a range of purchases. Examples include:
- furniture and playground equipment;
- apparel;
- entertainment streaming services;
- season tickets and ski passes;
- musical-instrument purchases (music lessons are a separate matter, as above);
- overnight camps; and
- chaperone expenses, apart from a narrow exception described in Odyssey’s guide.
Some uses are off-limits because of who is paid or how the money moves:
- Paying a parent to teach their own child. Utah law bars it, and Odyssey’s Fraud and Misuse Policy lists it as misuse.
- Using one child’s funds for a sibling. Funds can’t be pooled or moved between siblings, and one purchase can’t be split across siblings.
- Reselling items bought with scholarship funds.
- Taking a direct refund from a seller after a Marketplace purchase. Refunds go through Odyssey.
- Preschool. Utah Fits All covers kindergarten through grade 12 only, so it can’t pay for preschool tutoring.
These lists aren’t exhaustive. If an item isn’t clearly named, apply the “inherently educational versus a general-purpose item” test and check with Odyssey first (section 9).
8. Timing rules: when an expense counts
| Rule | What Odyssey or Utah law says |
|---|---|
| The scholarship year | “The scholarship year runs from July 1 through June 30.” |
| Expenses inside the year | “Expenses must occur within the applicable scholarship year.” |
| Services that cross June 30 | “Services that started before June 30 and carry through to the next program year are eligible expenses.” |
| Purchases made earlier | Retroactive reimbursement applies only to tuition and fees. |
| Waitlisted students | Under Odyssey’s 2025-26 policy, students on the waitlist “cannot accrue reimbursable expenses” before they are funded. |
| 2026-27 funds | Available from July 15, 2026. |
| Awards made mid-year | Prorated under Utah law: no more than 75% if awarded in the second quarter, no more than 50% in the third quarter, and no new awards in the fourth quarter. |
| Returning to public school | You “must notify Odyssey within five (5) business days,” and the remaining balance is removed from the account. |
| Reimbursement deadline | The 2025-26 deadline was May 31, 2026. Odyssey has not yet posted the 2026-27 deadline. |
Unspent money doesn’t all carry over. Under Utah Code 53F-6-411(6), two of every three unused dollars roll over, up to a cumulative maximum of $2,000, as long as your child stays eligible. If you’re planning a run of tutoring sessions, it can help to map them against the July 1 to June 30 year so the spending lands where you expect.
9. Checking an expense before you buy
There are two ways to lower the risk that an expense is turned down:
- Buy in the Odyssey Marketplace. Odyssey’s Spending & Reimbursement Guide says Marketplace purchases are “Pre-approved and do not require Odyssey review,” and Odyssey’s 2026-27 funding notice says “Odyssey pays vendors directly—you don’t have to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement.”
- Submit an Eligibility Request. Utah law requires the program manager to offer a way to check an expense in advance, with “a response within seven business days” (Utah Code 53F-6-405(10)). Odyssey’s version is the Eligibility Request, a preliminary review of a planned expense. Odyssey is clear about its limits: “An Eligibility Request is not a final approval or guarantee of reimbursement.”
A quick checklist before any purchase:
- Is it for this child’s education, not a sibling’s or the household’s?
- Is the seller an approved provider or a public school selling a contracted service without enrollment? If not, does the purchase meet the reimbursement conditions (a receipt naming the provider, an expense that would qualify from an approved provider, and a price within 10% of a comparable Marketplace item)?
- Is it “inherently educational,” and is it absent from Odyssey’s Ineligible Expense Guide?
- Does it fall under a 2026-27 cap, such as the $1,500 computer limit or the $750 transportation cap?
- Will the expense occur between July 1 and June 30 of the year you’re spending from?
- Are you buying in the Marketplace, or paying first and keeping the receipts Odyssey requires?
Fees aren’t something to budget for. Utah law says the program manager may not charge families processing fees or pass on third-party fees, and Odyssey says, “There are no processing or transaction fees when using the platform.”
If you buy outside the Marketplace and ask for reimbursement, Odyssey’s 2026-27 receipt rules and its 10% price rule apply; our payment guide explains both. If tutoring is part of your plan, our guide to finding a special education tutor covers what to check before you order, and you’re welcome to book a free consultation with our team to talk it through.