Free UTA Passes for Students Expands to Parents/Guardians

Salt Lake City School District joined with the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, the Utah Transit Authority, and the Salt Lake Education Foundation this week to announce the second year of a partnership that provides free UTA transit passes to district students and employees. The announcement included an expansion of the program, allowing a parent or guardian from each student household to also receive a free transit pass. 

With the addition of a parent/guardian pass, the hope is to encourage parents to be more involved with their child’s school. For example, parents or guardians can use their passes to ride to school with their kids or help them get to school events and parent teacher conferences. 

The passes can be used by parents or guardians as they go about their daily lives, getting to and from work, etc. More than half of our families qualify as low-income. Every dollar saved makes a great deal of difference for our families. Additionally, by encouraging the use of mass transit and eliminating individual car rides, this program will help improve air quality in our city. 

Student passes are currently being distributed to students at their schools. Parents/Guardians can request a pass (one per household) by contacting the office at their student’s school. The parent/guardian passes will not be available until after Labor Day. 

During the 2022-23 school year, the first year of the partnership, UTA saw a significant increase in ridership among students. UTA has seen an average of 3,000 unique district riders a month as a response to the program. The addition of parent/guardian passes should add to those numbers, but more importantly it should increase the usability of the program for all students. 

To find more information about how to use the passes, visit UTA’s website.