Voices: Utah open enrollment needs to be more parent-friendly

Utah legislators are tackling many education issues this session, from a bell-to-bell cell phone ban to reading proficiency, fights over choice and funding and much more. But another education issue lawmakers should consider is making Utah’s school open enrollment system more parent friendly.

Like many schools across the country, Utah public schools have become more conscious of parents and how to partner with them. At the same time, school closures and declining enrollment show that public schools may need to do more. Making open enrollment more transparent and easier to use should be part of that.

In my role as an education policy researcher at Sutherland Institute and as an educator before that, I’ve spoken with many parents of school-age children. In my view, it’s clear that pro-choice policies like open enrollment help students — and that increased clarity about options helps parents support their kids.

Utah’s open enrollment law has been consistently ranked high year after year. But that ranking only measures what’s written in the statute and doesn’t incorporate compliance or the parent experience, both of which need reform.

First, legislators should reform the way open enrollment data is reported. Currently, there’s no clear way to analyze statewide open enrollment trends. State law requires individual school districts to publish open enrollment data on their own websites, including their school’s maximum capacity, projected and actual enrollment, and applications received and accepted. However, there is no provision requiring the Utah State Board of Education to gather, aggregate and share this data.

Several other states share open enrollment data in statewide reports. It is an important reform because the state board already serves as a predictable source for those seeking data on public school attendance, scores, graduation rates and beyond. Adding open enrollment data would help parents and policymakers alike examine year-to-year trends in this important school choice policy.

And, although districts are statutorily required to share this data on their websites, most do not. In fact, a 2025 Sutherland review of district websites found that only 11 out of 41 school districts (roughly 27%) posted the full and current statutorily required open enrollment data on their websites. Requiring the state board to share aggregated district data adds a natural layer of enforcement since districts and the state would have to coordinate.

Likewise, the state board should post on its website the contact information for the open enrollment staff or specialist in each district. This reform could further support parents seeking answers on open enrollment.

Polling data from the Sutherland Institute shows Utahns, regardless of age or political affiliation, overwhelmingly support reforms to make open enrollment data more transparent.

A second needed parent-focused open enrollment reform is to require that parents be given a reason when their application as a nonresident student is denied. Currently, the law requires parents to be given written notice of whether their student was accepted or denied, but it does not require that the notice include the reason for a denial. Changing this may help parents use that information to fix the reason for denial in the future.

These reforms would provide necessary components for potential future public education choice innovations, like a statewide open-enrollment “navigator” tool for parents. The private sector could offer such tools, but the state needs to mandate open enrollment data reforms to spur that kind of innovation.

Legislators can easily improve open enrollment so that public schools remain an attractive option in an era of education choice. The state has earned praise for its policy, but it can also be a leader in on-the-ground transparency and parent experience.

Christine Cooke Fairbanks is the education policy fellow for Sutherland Institute.

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