Wyoming districts, homeschoolers take issue over new law removing requirement to submit curriculum

Despite a new Wyoming law removing homeschool reporting requirements, school districts are still contacting homeschooling families in what some analysts see as legal overstepping.

“The only requirement in state law that ever existed for homeschool families when it came to notifying the district was to annually submit the curriculum,” Will Estrada, senior counsel at Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), told the Powell Tribune.

“As part of that … many districts had notice of intent forms and kind of went beyond the curriculum. And so when that one sentence that was in the law saying submitting curriculum was removed, what it did was eliminate any legal authority for families to have to file with the district when they’re homeschooling.”

However, 12 of Wyoming’s 48 districts have received HSLDA letters “based on tips from parents” saying they had still been contacted for an annual notification regarding intent to homeschool, the association told journalists.

“We are fully aware that when a new law is passed, there’s always kind of growing pains around it, and that is part of the notification that we’re providing to school districts on behalf of our HSLDA member families,” Estrada said.

One of these districts, Park County School District 1, acknowledged the previous curriculum requirement had been a regulatory burden on schools.

“All it did was create administrative bureaucracy and took time, energy and effort and resources from school districts and homeschool families for something that was essentially meaningless, because they would submit their curriculum and then there was no requirement to follow up,” Superintendent Jay Curtis said. 

Curtis defended the district’s letter to homeschool families, arguing compulsory attendance laws still require districts to ensure children 6-16 years old are receiving a high-quality education.

“We are the ones who are obligated to ensure that, and if we, for instance, have a student who is not coming to school, and we don’t think that any education is involved in that – like they haven’t said, ‘Yep, we’re homeschooling’ in some way, shape or form – we would be obligated to turn that over to the county attorney,” he said.

“We are trying to take the softest approach. We 100% respect the privacy and the rights of homeschool families.”

‘An historic moment’ for parental rights

As previously reported by The Heartlander, the Homeschool Freedom Act signed into law Feb. 27 caused many homeschoolers to celebrate the removal of curriculum submissions to their local districts.

“Parental rights are reflected and upheld in the passage of this bill, and Wyoming joins 11 other states that require no notice of intent to homeschool,” said Homeschool Wyoming President Brenna Lowry at the time. “This is an historic moment as Wyoming is the first state in our nation’s history to roll back homeschool regulations.”

HSLDA echoed Lowry’s sentiment, with Estrada calling it “an incredibly exciting moment for the homeschool community in Wyoming, and more broadly in the United States.”

Estrada also emphasized he didn’t believe districts had malicious intent by sending letters to homeschool families even after the new law’s passing.

“I’m hopeful that next year, we’ll have far less districts that send these letters out,” he said, “and then by year three, everyone will have gotten the memo, and we can all live happily ever after.”