Superintendent Hart told the Utah State Board of Education on the record that the statewide graduation rate for the 2025 cohort rose to 89.8%, a roughly 1 percentage-point increase from the prior reported figure, and that a detailed press release and accompanying 13–16 page report were distributed to board members the same day.

The report, Hart said, shows subgroup improvements across the board and highlighted the largest subgroup gain for Black/African American students, whose graduation rate increased from 80.6% to 83.9%. Hart also said this is the first year the state is publishing graduation and dropout rates specifically for students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness and military‑connected students.

Member Kelly raised a direct challenge after the report, asking whether the emphasis on graduation could be masking learning loss because chronic absenteeism has risen sharply: "In 2017 it was 12.5 percent. In 2024, it's 23.8 percent," Kelly said, and asked how the agency is ensuring that higher graduation rates reflect real student learning rather than simply higher counts of diplomas.

Hart responded that graduation rates are a required reporting metric and acknowledged the tension Kelly described. "You don't have to have high attendance to have graduation rates that are high," Hart said, noting Utah's competency‑based model can allow students to demonstrate learning outside of seat time. Hart also acknowledged data‑quality concerns, pointing to a graduation data audit and other steps (including recent legislation and initiatives she referenced by name) to collect better information at the right time.

On federal funding, Hart warned the board that some federal grant opportunities are being "short‑cycled," sometimes with turnaround windows as short as two weeks, and that state education agencies are being prioritized in some grant rubrics. She recommended the board discuss whether USBE should pursue particular fast‑deadline grants and asked that the topic be placed on a future agenda if members want the agency to pursue those funds.

Hart said the agency is preparing for the upcoming legislative session and that the finance team has recently handled large numbers of fiscal‑note requests (she noted a day with eight fiscal notes). She also announced regional literacy nights in spring 2026 across multiple counties and an intensive staff strategic‑planning and KPI development retreat scheduled Dec. 15–19; Hart said the board can expect a rough strategic plan to be presented in January.

Hart emphasized the agency's longer-term direction: "We need to move to an outcomes‑based rather than an input‑based" system so that diplomas continue to represent competencies in reading, writing, math, civics and basic science rather than mere administrative proxies. The board took no formal vote on any motion during the superintendent's report.