Wyoming homeschooled middle schoolers and their parents may not have to wonder much longer about access to sports and extracurricular programs.
A state legislator is drafting a Wyoming “Tebow Rule” that would mandate that each of the state’s 48 school districts let homeschoolers play middle school sports and participate in other activities offered by the districts.
It and similar legislation across the nation have become known as “Tebow Rule” laws, named for the former Heisman Trophy-winning and Denver Broncos quarterback. It refers to legislation that opens the door for homeschoolers to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities in their local public school districts.
Tebow was homeschooled, but played football on his local high school team.
Wyoming law can be interpreted multiple ways, the bill’s author, state Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, told Cowboy State Daily.
The law in question says that students living within but not attending a school district “shall be permitted” to participate in activities sanctioned by the Wyoming High School Activities Association and offered by the district as long as the student hasn’t been expelled and pays the fees required of other students.
Narrowed Focus
School districts have traditionally taken a broad view of the activities covered by the law, Lawley said. For example, if a middle school offered football — a high school activity sanctioned by the WHSAA — then homeschooled middle schoolers could play.
But some districts have discussed narrowing their view of the activities included to high school students, Lawley said.
One such district is Washakie School District No. 1, which lies within the Wyoming House District 27 that Lawley represents.
The district’s superintendent, Tawn Argeris, recently proposed that the district use the narrower view to exclude homeschooled middle schoolers from activities and sports.
The solution to the different interpretations is simple: change state law to clarify that all students are to be included, Lawley said.
Reaction To New Law?
Lawley said she sees the new view as a reaction to misconceptions about a law the Wyoming Legislature approved during its 2025 session and Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law.
The law, House Bill 199, sets aside $30 million from the state’s general fund to provide alternative education to students, coupled with another $20 million from an earlier version of the program.
Parents of students can apply to receive $7,000 annual payouts to fund their child’s education via accounts held by the state.
Some school districts and teachers look at that and see the state handing out $7,000 checks to parents, Lawley added.
The Wyoming Education Association has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new law but declined to comment on Lawley’s bill.
That’s not the case, she said. Parents apply, have to meet certain conditions and the state only pays qualified education service vendors, which school districts can become.
The Students
The new view also impacts homeschoolers who’ve used the traditional view to sign up for middle school sports and activities.
Twelve-year-old Brenner Barthelmess and his brother Brooks, 13, played football, basketball and track for the Worland Braves last year, their father Bryan told Cowboy State Daily.
They’re heartbroken at the notion of not being able to play this next school year, Bryan said.
“It accomplishes very little in a positive way and does way more damage to our community when you do these types of things in such a drastic manner,” Bryan said. “It creates division and not unity when we have communities in this nation that desperately need more unity and less division.”
Smaller rural communities often rally behind a successful team, Bryan added. That’s less likely to happen when some of the community’s kids can’t participate.
Tyus Martinez, 12, and his brother Koen, 14, ran track for the Braves last year.
Koen will move on to run for Worland High School, but Tyus was devastated to learn the news, said their mother, Mary.
Sports aren’t the only area affected, Lawley said.
Homeschoolers would also be banned from band, and that’s a year of practice that they can’t make up in high school, she added.
The Wyoming Legislature could take up Lawley’s bill when it returns to session Feb. 9.
The Wyoming Constitution calls for a “complete and uniform” system of public education. That phrase, through multiple high-profile court cases, has been interpreted to require that the state Legislature furnish a public education system that is “both visionary and unsurpassed.”
WEA and its co-plaintiffs say the voucher program runs afoul of that wording and violates the Constitution’s limit of appropriations for educational purposes to entities “under the absolute control of the state.”
Matthew Christian can be reached at matthew@cowboystatdaily.com.
