HB 298 Utah House · 2026 General Session

School Design Amendments

HB 298 requires Utah's State Board of Education to create and maintain a public library of standardized school building designs for elementary, middle, high, and multi-level schools. School districts and charter schools must own and submit publicly funded designs to this library, while also using the library for new construction projects. The bill mandates life-cycle cost analysis, safety compliance, cost transparency, and competitive bidding for design fees, with designs required to meet accessibility standards and adapt to local needs. This directly affects all Utah public school districts, charter schools, and architects/engineering firms working on school construction projects.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 21, 2026 Last action Mar 7, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Amended Excerpts 3/5/2026 15:03:214 → Amended 3/5/2026 15:03:214 · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to reorganize its structure and clarify specific requirements for school building design libraries and construction guidelines. The changes include renumbering sections, updating the effective date, and modifying language around design ownership and submission requirements to ensure local education agencies retain intellectual property rights while contributing designs to the state library.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on establishing a school building design library and construction guidelines, but the amendments clarify how local education agencies must handle design ownership and submission.

REQUIREMENT

Changed language from 'may' to 'shall' regarding design ownership, requiring local education agencies to own all plans and specifications when using public funds for school construction.

Added explicit requirement that local education agencies retain intellectual property rights to designs they develop.

TECHNICAL

Reorganized section numbering and formatting to align with standard legislative document structure.

Updated the header information to reflect the amended version with a specific timestamp.

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Mar 5, 2026

Lower · Passed

House/ comm rpt/ sent to Rules/ amended [House Rules Committee]

lower

Mar 4, 2026

Lower · Passed

House Comm - Recommends Returned to Rules [House Education Committee]

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Introduced

House Comm - Amendment Recommendation [House Education Committee]

lower

Feb 2, 2026

Committee

House/ to standing committee [House Education Committee]

lower

Jan 21, 2026

Introduced

House/ 1st reading (Introduced)

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors