Education Performance and Spending Dashboard

• Description: This tool includes expenditure data for all school districts and charter schools in the State of Utah.
• Sources: School districts and charter schools submitted detailed compensation reports for their employees to the Office of the State Auditor. This information was linked to the Utah State Board of Education's CACTUS (educator credentialing) database. The Office of the State Auditor then aggregated these records to develop the visualizations and tools on this page.
• Timespan: Fiscal Years 2014-2025

To provide a clear and consistent understanding of how funds are allocated, the Office of the State Auditor developed categories based on the USBE Uniform Chart of Accounts. This approach allows for meaningful comparisons across different districts and helps stakeholders understand the key drivers of educational costs. The following spending categories were developed to isolate distinct operational functions and funding purposes:

• Instructional Expenses: Costs for activities that involve direct teaching and learning between teachers and students. This includes classroom instruction as well as teaching that takes place in other settings like homes, hospitals, or online. It also includes support staff who assist with instruction, such as classroom aides and other helpers.
• Student Support Services: Expenses for programs that support students' emotional, social, academic, and physical well-being. This includes services like school nurses, counselors, psychologists, social workers, and specialists (such as speech, occupational, and physical therapists), as well as support for attendance and other student needs.
• School Administration: Spending for the leadership and management of schools and school districts. This includes school boards, superintendents, principals, and administrative functions (such as legal, audit, elections, and staff negotiations) that support the overall operation of schools.
• Community Services: Costs for programs that provide services to the broader community, including students, staff, and residents. This includes activities such as community recreation programs, childcare services, public libraries, and other welfare or civic services offered by the school district.
• Extracurricular: Spending on student activities outside the core academic curriculum, including athletics, clubs, and other after-school programs. These activities are provided or supported by the school district and supplement the regular curriculum, but are not part of required instruction.
• Debt Service and Other Financing: Covers all long-term debt management, including paying down the principal and interest on bonds, lease agreements, and long-term notes. In contrast, interest payments for short-term loans that must be repaid within a year are categorized separately.
• Operations and Maintenance: Covers the costs of keeping school buildings, grounds, and equipment safe, functional, and in good condition. This includes repairs, maintenance, security, heating and cooling, and general upkeep of school property. Small renovations that improve or fix spaces without significantly increasing the building's value are also included.
• Facilities Acquisition & Construction: Includes major building and property projects such as purchasing land or buildings, constructing new facilities, renovations, and major system upgrades or site improvements. It involves large-scale investments that expand or significantly improve school facilities, while smaller repairs or minor remodeling are generally not included.

Data Sources

• Utah State Board of Education (USBE)
  • Student Course Information
  • Student Enrollment
  • Uniform Chart of Accounts (Fiscal Year 2026)
  • School Information (e.g., location, website, Title I status)
  • Click to visit USBE's data portal
• Transparent Utah
  • School/District Expenses
  • School/District Revenue
• Districts and Charter Schools
  • Payroll Information

About RISE and Aspire Testing

RISE and Utah Aspire Plus assessments measure English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science skills at the end of the school year. The Aspire assessment is administered to students in grades 9 and 10 and serves to predict future ACT scores.

Utah RISE Testing

• Language Arts: Grades 3-8
• Mathematics: Grades 3-8
• Science: Grades 4-8

Utah Aspire Plus Testing

• English Language Arts: Grades 9 & 10
• Mathematics: Grades 9 & 10
• Science: Grades 9 & 10

Note: RISE and Aspire testing also measure Reading skills, which Project KIDS does not currently report.

Student Characteristics Definitions

Chronically Absent: Students who have missed 10% or more of the days they were enrolled.

English Language Learner (ELL): Students who are learning English or have limited English proficiency.

Gifted: Students who are eligible to participate in a gifted and talented program.

Homeless: Students who are experiencing housing instability, ranging from doubling up with other families due to economic hardship to staying in places without adequate facilities (such as running water, heat, or electricity).

Low Income: Students who are economically disadvantaged based on family income and may be eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Migrant: Students whose families move frequently across school district lines for temporary or seasonal agricultural or fishing work.

Mobile: Students who have one or more enrollment records with fewer than 160 days of membership.

Special Education: Students who have a special education designation (e.g., Autism, Speech-Language Impairment, or Intellectual Disability).

General Information & Demographics

School and District locations and information were gathered from the USBE website, and student and teacher counts were calculated using course records; a student or teacher is included in this count if they took or taught at least one class in the selected school or district. The student count can be slightly different from enrollment counts because a student may be enrolled in one school but may also take a class in another school. Class size was calculated by taking the average of the student count for each class in the school/district. Classes are defined as a unique combination of Term, Cycle, Class Period, and Course Section, which are part of course records. AP, Concurrent Enrollment (CE), Dual Language Immersion (DLI), and IB class lists were gathered using core code information found on the USBE website and course records.

Student demographics were calculated using student enrollment records gathered from the USBE. Records containing information from 10 or fewer students were removed to protect student privacy.

Test Scores

Test score data for each student from the RISE/Aspire, AP, Financial Literacy, and ACT tests came from the USBE. Average testing scores for each school/district were calculated, masking any information that contained data from 10 or fewer students.

Total & Per Student Spending

School districts and charters submit their expenses to Transparent Utah. Project KIDS uses the data that these entities submit along with more detailed payroll information that districts submit to the Utah Office of the State Auditor for Project KIDS. Data is cleaned and standardized.

Average spending was calculated by dividing the total school/district spending by the number of students in a given school/district.

Project KIDS also broke down school expense and payroll information into 8 major categories based on financial account codes in the USBE Uniform Chart of Accounts.

When Local Education Agencies (LEAs) provided transaction data that lacked school-specific details, we aggregated these unallocated funds at the district level. We then redistributed them to individual schools proportionally, based on student enrollment. This approach allowed us to account for all funding at the school level without altering overall district spending totals.