Wyoming ESA Homeschool: Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, Approved Expenses, and Lawsuit Status (2026)

Wyoming passed one of the most generous homeschool funding programs in the country — $7,000 per student per year with near-universal eligibility for families outside the public school system. Then a court blocked it. If you are homeschooling in Wyoming or planning to start, here is exactly where the program stands in 2026, what it covers, and what you should be doing right now.

What the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act Actually Provides

Wyoming enacted its original Education Savings Account (ESA) legislation in 2024. In 2025, the legislature amended and expanded that framework under the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, creating a program designed for broad participation rather than a narrow income-qualified set.

Under the program as structured:

Who qualifies for K-12. Any Wyoming student who is not enrolled in public school — including homeschoolers, private school students, and students in hybrid programs — is universally eligible for the K-12 ESA. There is no income cap for K-12 eligibility.

Pre-K eligibility. Pre-Kindergarten students are eligible with an income cap: households must earn at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines.

The $7,000 figure. Each eligible student's account is funded at $7,000 annually. Funds are deposited into an account managed through a state-administered portal. Families do not receive cash; they access an approved purchasing platform and request reimbursements for qualifying expenses.

Expense pre-approval outside the marketplace. Purchases made directly through the state's digital marketplace are straightforward. Purchases made outside the marketplace — say, a private tutor you hire independently, or a curriculum you buy directly from a publisher — require strict pre-approval from the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) before the purchase is made. Do not buy first and ask for reimbursement later. That approach is not guaranteed to work and has caused families to lose reimbursements in similar programs in other states.

ESA Approved Expenses for Homeschoolers

The program specifies a detailed list of what the $7,000 can and cannot be spent on. For homeschooling families, the relevant approved categories are:

• Curriculum and books: Textbooks, digital curriculum subscriptions, chapter books used for academic instruction
• Tutoring: Academic tutoring services, provided the tutor is not an immediate family member
• Educational therapies: Occupational therapy, speech therapy, behavioral therapy, and cognitive therapy with an educational purpose
• Educational technology: Laptops, tablets, scientific calculators, and similar hardware used for academic purposes
• Testing fees: ACT, SAT, AP exam fees, and test prep courses
• Private school or online course tuition: Tuition paid to private schools or non-governmental online course providers
• Public school extracurricular fees: Fees associated with participating in public school extracurricular activities (relevant if your child accesses WHSAA sports under W.S. § 21-4-506)
• Contracted public school classes: Fees for individual courses taken through the public school under a contract arrangement

What the ESA will not cover includes general household items, entertainment, clothing, property, vehicles, medical services (including vitamins and general health supplements), gift cards, and weapons or hunting licenses. The distinction is consistently academic vs. non-academic in nature.

One category that catches families off guard: the tutoring exclusion for immediate family members. You cannot pay yourself or your spouse out of ESA funds for the instruction you provide as the primary homeschool teacher. The tutoring allowance is for external providers.

Ready to leave public school and eventually access Wyoming's ESA once it reopens? The first step is a legally clean withdrawal from public school. Wyoming's § 21-4-102(c) requires an in-person meeting with a district counselor or administrator — and knowing your rights before that meeting matters. The Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks you through the entire process with ready-to-use documentation.

The Lawsuit: Why the ESA Is Currently Blocked

The Wyoming Education Association (WEA), joined by several intervening school districts, filed a constitutional challenge to the ESA program. Their core argument is that diverting public education funds to private and home education undermines the legislature's obligation to fund the state's public school system at constitutional levels.

The litigation has reached a critical stage. As of late 2025, the Wyoming Supreme Court denied a request to stay the lower court's injunction. In plain terms: the Supreme Court declined to pause the injunction while the case proceeds, which means the injunction blocking fund distribution remains in effect. Families cannot currently receive disbursements from their ESA accounts.

What this means in practice:

• Interest surveys and applications are still open. The WDE has continued to accept interest from families so the program can activate quickly once the legal question is resolved.
• No funds are being distributed. Even if you have completed an application, no money will move until the court resolves the constitutional challenge.
• EdChoice has intervened. The school choice advocacy organization EdChoice has entered the lawsuit on the side of Wyoming families and the program's defenders, which adds legal resources to the defense.
• Timeline is uncertain. Wyoming Supreme Court cases of this complexity typically take months to years to fully resolve. There is no reliable public timeline for a final decision.

This litigation mirrors ESA legal battles in other states, though Wyoming's situation is distinct because of how the state's constitution defines the public education funding obligation. The outcome will likely hinge on whether ESA expenditures are characterized as a supplement to the public system or a diversion from it.

What Wyoming's ESA Litigation Means for Your Planning

Do not let the injunction stop you from preparing. Here is how to think about the current situation:

Complete the interest survey if you have not. The WDE is building its applicant list. Families who have registered interest will be at the front of the queue when funds unlock. Do not wait until the injunction lifts to start the paperwork.

Audit your planned expenses now. Before the program reopens, build a list of the curriculum, equipment, and services you intend to use and verify which ones are covered under the approved expense categories. Identify which purchases will need pre-approval versus marketplace purchases. This preparation means you can act quickly when funds become available rather than scrambling to figure out what qualifies.

Keep your homeschool documentation organized. The ESA program requires families to demonstrate that they are operating a legitimate homeschool. Wyoming's current post-HB 46 framework does not require annual curriculum submission for most homeschoolers, but participation in the ESA may reintroduce documentation requirements. Maintaining organized records now costs nothing and protects your eligibility later.

Do not make purchasing decisions based on ESA reimbursement you have not received. The injunction makes ESA funding unreliable in the near term. Plan your homeschool budget as if ESA funds do not exist, and treat any eventual reimbursement as a windfall rather than a budget line item.

The Relationship Between the ESA and Wyoming's Curriculum Deregulation

There is an important interaction between Wyoming's HB 46 curriculum deregulation and the ESA that families often miss.

HB 46, effective July 1, 2025, eliminated the requirement for most homeschooling families to submit an annual curriculum outline to their school district. Independent homeschoolers are no longer required to prove they are providing a "sequentially progressive" education to a school administrator.

However, if your child participates in public school sports or extracurriculars under W.S. § 21-4-506, or receives special education services through the district, you must still submit your curriculum to maintain eligibility. The ESA program may also carry its own documentation requirements separate from the HB 46 framework.

The practical takeaway: homeschooling in Wyoming is simpler administratively than it was before July 2025, but accessing public resources — whether sports, special education, or eventually ESA funds — comes with documentation strings attached. Knowing which tier you are in helps you comply with only what is actually required.

The Hathaway Scholarship: The Other Wyoming Education Funding Program

The Steamboat Legacy ESA is blocked, but the Hathaway Scholarship is not. Wyoming's merit-based scholarship for post-secondary education is fully operational and available to homeschoolers. It funds attendance at the University of Wyoming or any Wyoming community college and is structured into four tiers based on ACT scores:

Homeschoolers are fully eligible, but unlike traditionally enrolled students, GPA does not factor into eligibility. Qualification is based entirely on standardized test scores and completion of the Hathaway Success Curriculum — a specific course sequence covering 4 years of Language Arts, 4 years of Math (including Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and an additional math course in grades 9-12), 4 years of Science, 3 years of Social Studies, plus coursework in Fine Arts, Career and Technical Education, or World Languages.

Parents must carefully document and report these specific courses on state-provided forms. A student who completes the right coursework but fails to document it correctly can lose eligibility they genuinely earned.

Staying Current on Wyoming ESA Status

The lawsuit will resolve — the question is when. The best source for current status is the Wyoming Department of Education's ESA program page and coverage from Wyoming-focused education policy outlets. Homeschoolers of Wyoming (HOW) also tracks the litigation and sends updates to its membership. If you are not already on HOW's contact list, signing up now is an efficient way to get notified when the program reopens.

When the injunction lifts, the window to get funds flowing will reward families who completed registration early. The administrative pipeline — interest survey, account setup, marketplace access — takes time. Starting it before funds are available is how you actually access them in the first semester they are unlocked rather than waiting another quarter.

Wyoming passed a serious, well-funded education savings account program. It is temporarily blocked, not dead. Plan accordingly.

If you are starting your homeschool journey in Wyoming right now, the practical first step is the withdrawal from public school — specifically the in-person meeting required by § 21-4-102(c) — not the ESA, which you cannot access yet. The Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers that process in full, including what you must say in the meeting, what documentation to bring, and how to handle a district that tries to impose conditions the law does not require.

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