Agency: State Board of Education

Line Item: USOE - Initiative Programs

Function

The Utah State Office of Education-Initiative Programs line item was created during the 2009 General Session and is designed to provide greater accountability and reporting on educational programs developed by the Legislature. The line item will continue to incorporate legislative initiatives that target specific educational priorities deemed high priority by the Legislature and state education leaders. These programs are mainly distributed to school districts, charter schools or private entities on a contract or grant basis.

Background

Over the course of several years, the Legislature established several new education initiative programs designed to meet certain student populations, establish new programs, or provide funding for pilot programs. Appropriated funds are distributed to public or private entities on a contractual basis, and, in order to provide oversight, are included within the Utah State Office of Education's budget. After several years, individual initiative program funding levels became hard to track within the larger USOE budget. To ease program tracking, the Legislature created the Initiative Programs line item which includes the following programs:

• Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarships;

• ProStart Culinary Arts Program;

• UPSTART Early Childhood Education;

• Financial and Economic Literacy Education;

• CTE Online Assessments;

• Performance-Based Compensation Pilot Program in Elementary Schools (moved to the Minimum School Program in FY 2011);

• The Utah Electronic High School (moved from the Minimum School Program in FY 2011

• K-3 Reading Program (2011 General Session); and

• Sixth Grade Math Assessment (2011 General Session).

Intent Language

The Legislature intends that the State Board of Education allocate $300,000 from the appropriation for Contracts and Grants to provide statewide access to software licenses for programs to improve English language learner literacy.

The Legislature intends that the State Board of Education allocate $750,000 from the appropriation for Contracts and Grants to support a sixth grade math assessment program.

Funding Detail