Senate committee approves subsidy for school districts assisting low-income students

A bill that would give schools $1.5 million to help shoulder the costs of fee waivers for low-income students sailed out of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.

Under HB68, schools could receive up to $40 per student — often, not even a fraction of what schools shoulder, but bill advocates say every penny counts.

School fees, for anything from science labs to cheerleading, are waived for students who qualify for free school lunch. Districts like Ogden and Salt Lake reportedly grant around 50 percent of their students fee waivers.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, said schools that are heavily impacted by fee waivers are having to stretch budgets to cover those costs.

The bill includes an accountability provision requiring districts to be accountable for those fees.

"This is a bill that would require a school to keep track of their fee money," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, the bill's Senate sponsor. "I support fee money 100 percent. . . . And when parents are supporting their children with out-of-pocket expenses, it gets them somewhat involved in the school."