UFA Handbook Watch

We are thrilled by the incredible start of Utah Fits All. Since launching on August 21st, families have made tens of thousands of purchases, schools have processed thousands of tuition payments, and vendors have added thousands of offerings. While we continue to refine the platform for Utah, we are encouraged by the progress so far and deeply appreciative of your partnership.

Towards that end, we would like to share some programmatic updates and clarification for parents based on feedback received by our customer support team. 

UFA/LEA Cross Enrollment:

On August 28, 2025, a notification was sent to all UFA parents who had a student cross-enrolled in a Local Education Agency (LEA) and UFA. As a reminder, enrollment in an LEA disqualifies a student from participating in UFA. 

We received lots of parent feedback indicating that there is a large population of UFA students who are being reported as enrolled in an LEA who are not enrolled. We understand this has caused confusion and concern for parents and we are actively working with USBE to resolve the situation.

As part of that effort, USBE is working in conjunction with LEAs to ensure schools are properly reporting student enrollment. Once this reporting is refined, USBE will be providing Odyssey a definitive cross-enrollment list. Odyssey will keep parents informed of this process. Odyssey will not remove any students because of cross enrollment until we receive updated and refined cross enrollment lists. Once we receive that, parents will once again be notified if they are cross enrolled. Only after a sufficient notice period has been given, will Odyssey then remove cross enrolled students. 

In the meantime, if you received a cross-enrollment notification on August 28th, please continue to work with your LEA to ensure your student is not enrolled. If you think it was in error, we still recommend contacting the LEA to alert them to the error. Ultimately, any changes to the cross enrollment need to happen at the LEA level. If you have been approved for funding but not yet opted into UFA, please be sure to disenroll from your LEA (if enrolled) before opting in. 
 

Reimbursement Reminders:

Since opening less than 3 weeks ago, we have received over 25,000 reimbursement requests. As of today, we have reviewed more than half of all requests. As part of ensuring a smooth reimbursement process, we would like to issue a few reminders based on some common denials we have been seeing.

• One category per reimbursement. Unless all of the items are in the same category, parents cannot put multiple spending categories into one reimbursement request. For example, if a parent purchases four textbooks for a student and they are all on one receipt, one reimbursement can be submitted. If a parent purchases textbooks and a laptop and they are all on one receipt, two separate reimbursements must be submitted.
• Receipts must be itemized. The expense the parent is requesting must be an individual item on the original receipt.
• Odyssey customer support does not provide individualized reimbursement preapprovals. We encourage parents to utilize the Marketplace for a comprehensive guide of approved items.
• Computers are a restricted category. This includes laptops and desktops. Computer parts to build your own computer are authorized but will be treated and restricted as a computer. Please note that items such as printers, tablets, cameras, and headphones are also restricted categories. Details on these categories can be found here in our UFA Handbook.
• September 30, 2025 is the deadline for returning Year 1 students to submit reimbursements dated between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2025. If you have submitted your reimbursement before then for the prior year, you will be processed prior to October 21, 2025.  Beginning October 1st, Odyssey will only be accepting reimbursements for this program year, which began July 1, 2025. This is necessary to facilitate the fund rollover in October.

For more information regarding reimbursements please refer to the UFA Handbook. Specifically the UFA Purchasing Guidelines & Reimbursement Policy and the Examples of Extracurricular, Physical Education, and Fine Arts pages.
 

Payment processing:

We have received many questions regarding payment processing, and want to provide you with more details on how it works.  

Once parents make purchases or submit reimbursements, Odyssey sends a drawdown to USBE. USBE approves the drawdown and sends Odyssey the outstanding drawdown balance. Once this money is received, Odyssey pays out vendors, schools, and parents.

The first marketplace and tuition drawdown has been approved and transferred by USBE. Schools and marketplace vendors can expect payment this week for transactions that occurred within the first week of the program. Parents with approved reimbursements can expect payment starting next week. Please note that these payments for vendors, schools and parents are within our expected timeline for receiving payments. Please also note that we expect payments to speed up over time as transfers are settled quicker between financial institutions, and volume decreases. 
 

Customer Support: 

Odyssey is currently handling a very high volume of support tickets and we appreciate the patience of our parents, schools, and vendors. The best way to have an issue resolved is by directly contacting our Support team at help.ut@withodyssey.com. 

Before submitting a request, we ask that parents first check the UFA handbook for any relevant policies or articles regarding their issue. When contacting Support, please identify the full name of the student associated with your issue and provide screenshots for any technical issues. This greatly increases the speed at which we can address and resolve issues. 

Thank you for your patience and trust as we continue building Utah Fits All together. Your partnership makes it possible for us to deliver a program that empowers families, supports schools, and benefits students all across Utah. We look forward to continuing to improve the platform and our service as we move forward.