Homeschool Freedom Act steams ahead in Wyoming Senate
Senate Education Committee members unanimously passed House Bill 46, 'Homeschool freedom act,' Wednesday morning, with one member excused. The bill passed its first reading on the Senate floor Thursday, and has two more rounds of votes before it returns to the House of Representatives for concurrence.
If the House concurs with the Senate, HB 46 will head straight to the governor's desk for his signature or veto. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, asked during the Senate Education Committee meeting whether the bill removes the requirement for parents to at least notify school districts their child will be homeschooled.
Wyoming Department of Education Chief of Staff Dicky Shanor said HB 46 only amends subsection b of Wyoming statute 21-4-102.
The next paragraph, subsection c, would still require parents or guardians who have not 'notified the district of enrolling that child in a different school district or in a private school or home-based educational program, shall … provide the school district with written consent to the withdrawal of that child from school attendance.'
All public testimony was in favor of the bill, from homeschool parents to school district representatives. Several Laramie County homeschool parents said sending in curriculum to their local school district is a 'confusing' process.
Homeschool Wyoming President Brenna Lowry, who is also a homeschool mom in Laramie County, said 'the time is right to repeal this regulation that has no reason in the statute and that makes no sense.' Lowry added that her organization has seen a doubling in the number of homeschool families, especially since the pandemic.
'During that time, we've had families reach out with confusion over what is actually required by the school districts,' Lowry said, later testifying there are between 5,000 and 6,000 families who homeschool their children in Wyoming.
Homeschool Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Will Estrada said he supports the Homeschool Freedom Act, saying it's 'good for public schools' and 'will ease a paperwork burden that does really nothing' for children's education.
It also alleviates stress for homeschool parents in Wyoming, he said, who sometimes hire lawyers to fight against school districts that insist on using a different form of curriculum. He added that parents and guardians will still be responsible for notifying the school district of their intent to withdraw the child.
'But for families whose child never went to public school, they would not need to do this,' Estrada said.
Wyoming Association of School Administrators Executive Director Boyd Brown said public school superintendents also stood in support of the bill.
'We do nothing with evaluating (homeschool curriculum),' Brown said.
Wyoming Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt said the notification that a child is withdrawn from the school is helpful, but it doesn't clarify whether the child is being homeschooled. The submitted homeschool curriculum typically helps with that investigation, she said.
'It's a tool that will no longer be there,' Schmidt said. 'But we will continue to work around it and do our investigations regardless.'
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