A bill giving Wyoming homeschool parents freedom from submitting curriculum to local school boards will head to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk for final approval.
The Home School Freedom Act or House Bill 46 was passed by the Wyoming Senate on Monday after a third reading by a 28-2 vote.
If Gordon signs the bill, the legislation would take effect July 1, in time for the fall school year.
“We at Homeschool Wyoming are very pleased that the Senate has voted for homeschool freedom,” said Brenna Lowry, president of Homeschool Wyoming, an association of homeschool families. “We look forward to the governor signing this historic legislation. This will be adding Wyoming to the other 11 states that have no reporting requirements.”
Homeschool Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Will Estrada who testified in support of the bill before the Senate Education Committee also was thankful the bill passed.
“We are absolutely thrilled. I was there last week at the Senate Education Committee hearing along with a dozen homeschool leaders and parents who thought it was a good bill,” Estrada said. “We’ve reached out to the governor’s office and haven’t heard anything back. We know the governor is a supporter of parents and a support of school choice. We hope the governor will sign it into law and make it official.”
Michael Pearlman, spokesman for Gov. Gordon, said the governor “will consider HB 46 carefully as he does all bills that arrive at his desk.”
Sen. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne, a member of the Senate Education Committee introduced the house bill initially sponsored by Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon. Brennan, who described herself as a homeschool parent, pushed for its passage and addressed potential questions that other senators might raise.
“We heard from both the superintendent and the school boards that they are both in support of this act as it gets rid of a layer of bureaucracy,” she said.
Brennan said the legislation does not preclude homeschool students from being able to play sports and does not cover homeschool students who participate in education savings accounts; those students fall under a different act.
Notification Of Removal Still Needed
Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, chair of the Senate Education Committee, told senators the bill would not remove a requirement for parents to notify school districts when they pull children out for homeschooling.
“It's basically so that the public schools don't get dinged not knowing that that student's gone for a dropout,” she said.
Senator Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, also a member of the Education Committee, told senators he supports the bill and that it “clears up some bureaucracy which is totally unnecessary in statute.”
“Basically, it requires a report and that report from what we gathered is not even necessarily viewed, it’s thrown away,” he said. “This would remove that requirement.”
During a Senate Education Committee hearing last week, senators also heard from several homeschooling parents who supported the bill and voiced their displeasure at the confusion they felt with the current law and how some local school districts address the current notification requirement.
If signed by the governor, Estrada said the legislation means that homeschool parents who start a child in school at home at the start of a school year no longer have to notify the district they are homeschooling nor do parents whose kids go from a private school to homeschooling.
The two senators voting against the bill’s final passage on Monday were Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper. Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, was excused.
The Homeschool Freedom Act passed the House on Jan. 23 by a vote of 54-6, with two representatives excused.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
