Salt Lake County in the Utah Fits All count
Odyssey’s report to the Legislature for the 2025-26 program year lists 4,686 approved Utah Fits All scholarship students living in Salt Lake County, out of 14,522 statewide. That is about 32% of all students, the largest share of any county (our arithmetic). Because the figure comes from the ZIP code on each application, it tells you where families using the scholarship lived, not how many children have an IEP or need tutoring.
Census Bureau estimates show a split worth knowing: the county’s total population grew 3.0% between April 2020 and July 2025, but its under-18 population fell 9.3%. Even so, Salt Lake County still has more school-age children than any other Utah county, about 212,000 aged 5 to 17 in July 2025.
Five school districts: which one evaluates your child?
Evaluations, eligibility decisions and IEPs are handled by school districts. Salt Lake County has five of them, and a city name doesn’t always tell you which is yours. The district that matters also depends on your child’s schooling:
- Home-schooled children: Utah’s Special Education Rules make the school district responsible for locating, identifying and evaluating home-schooled students in its boundaries, so it’s the district where you live.
- Private-school students: each district must locate, identify and evaluate students with disabilities enrolled by their parents in private schools located in the area it serves, so it’s the district where the private school is.
| District | Main communities (confirm by street address) | Students with disabilities, Dec 1, 2025 | Special education office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan School District | Bluffdale, Herriman, Riverton, South Jordan, West Jordan, Copperton and southwest unincorporated Salt Lake County | 8,715 | Jordan special education |
| Granite School District | West Valley City, Taylorsville, Millcreek, Holladay, South Salt Lake, Kearns, Magna | 8,239 | Granite special education |
| Canyons School District | Sandy, Midvale, Cottonwood Heights, Alta and the Salt Lake County part of Draper | 4,155 | Canyons special education |
| Salt Lake City School District | Salt Lake City | 2,571 | Special Education and 504 |
| Murray City School District | Murray | 837 | Murray City School District |
Student counts are from the Utah State Board of Education’s December 1, 2025 count of students with disabilities served by each district. They describe public-school services, not need, and don’t include charter schools, which are counted separately.
Edges worth checking
- Millcreek and South Salt Lake are in Granite, not the Salt Lake City School District.
- Draper crosses the county line: the Salt Lake County side is Canyons; the Utah County side is Alpine (see our Utah County page for that district’s 2027 split).
- West Jordan, Murray and Cottonwood Heights: some addresses in these cities may be served by Granite rather than the district the city name suggests. Confirm your street address with the district before you call.
- Canyons split from Jordan. Voters created Canyons School District in 2007, and its schools opened in August 2009 in communities that had been part of Jordan.
Canyons’ Child Find notice specifically names students attending private schools and home-schooled students among the children it works to identify and evaluate. Jordan’s special education site also posts a Child Find notice.
Local reading help to know about
Two University of Utah programs in the valley are worth knowing about, especially if reading is the main concern. They are separate organizations, not partners of ours.
- University of Utah Reading Clinic (Murray) offers reading assessment and intervention, including online Distance Tutoring for Utah students from late kindergarten through grade 12. Tuition is on a sliding scale by income and family size. Students recommended for help join a waiting list, and the clinic’s undated FAQ says demand “typically exceeds” its capacity. Its distance sessions run 45 minutes, twice a week, with a caregiver present.
- Youth Literacy Project: the reading clinic and the Salt Lake City Public Library launched a pilot in which trained community volunteers provide structured literacy tutoring to elementary students at library locations. The university’s article (updated August 31, 2026) says the pilot runs “through November.”
How we’re different: our tutoring is private and one-to-one with a teacher certified in special education, it covers reading, math, writing and executive-function skills, and families using Utah Fits All can book it through the Odyssey Marketplace.
What online sessions look like from a Salt Lake County home
Your child joins a live video session from home, the library or wherever they can focus, and works one-to-one with the teacher on the skill they are practicing. If your child has an IEP, a 504 plan or an evaluation report, you can share the academic goals you want us to focus on, and the teacher plans sessions around them.
We tutor reading and dyslexia, math, and attention and organization. Our work is academic only: we don’t offer therapy, speech services, evaluations or diagnosis, and tutoring doesn’t replace the services a district provides. In the consultation we check which teacher and which times could work, rather than promising a slot up front.
Paying with Utah Fits All
Special Education Resource LLC is an approved provider in the Utah Fits All Odyssey Marketplace. We are not Odyssey, the Utah State Board of Education or the State of Utah. For a Marketplace order, Odyssey says it “pays vendors directly—you don’t have to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement.” Families can also pay first and ask Odyssey for reimbursement, which needs an itemized receipt and proof of payment, and Odyssey limits reimbursement to items and services that cost no more than 10% above a comparable Marketplace price.
The 2026-27 amounts are up to $8,000 for a private-school student and up to $4,000 or $6,000 for a home-based student depending on age on September 1. Our guides cover both payment routes and the amounts in detail. If your child has an IEP, read what Utah Fits All means for an IEP before you apply.
Court status: In April 2025, Utah’s Third District Court ruled Utah Fits All unconstitutional, and the State appealed to the Utah Supreme Court. As of October 1, 2026, the Utah Supreme Court has not ruled, and the program is operating for the 2026-27 school year. More on the court case.
For free, statewide guidance on special education, the Utah Parent Center (800-468-1160) is based in Murray, and its Family to Family page lists a parent group for Salt Lake County.
Sources
- Odyssey, Utah Fits All Legislative Report for the 2025-2026 Program Year, as published by Utah News Dispatch (section X)
- Utah State Board of Education: Child Count of Students with Disabilities, December 1, 2025
- Jordan School District: cities served
- USBE Special Education Rules (June 2023), sections VI.B.3.a and VI.D.1
- U.S. Census Bureau: Vintage 2025 county population estimates by age, Utah
- University of Utah Reading Clinic: FAQ
- Odyssey: Spending and Reimbursement Guide
- Odyssey: Updated UFA Spending Policies for 2026-27 Awards
District and local resource pages checked October 1, 2026.