Wyoming Homeschool Freedom Act (HB 46): What Changed in 2025

Most of the homeschool advice circulating online about Wyoming is wrong. Posts from 2023 and 2024 tell parents they must submit a curriculum outline to the local board of trustees every year. That requirement no longer exists. House Bill 46 — the Homeschool Freedom Act — took effect July 1, 2025, and it fundamentally restructured the rules. If you are planning to homeschool or are already doing so, you need to understand exactly what the new law says, what it deleted, and where the narrow exceptions still bite.

What the Law Was Before July 2025

Under the previous version of W.S. § 21-4-102(b), every parent running a home-based educational program was required to submit a curriculum to the local board of trustees each year. The submission had to demonstrate that the program was a "sequentially progressive curriculum of fundamental instruction" in seven subjects: reading, writing, mathematics, civics, history, literature, and science.

The enforcement mechanism was severe: failure to submit served as prima facie evidence that the home-based program did not meet compulsory attendance requirements. In practical terms, that meant a missing curriculum packet could instantly expose parents to truancy investigations and, in the worst cases, referral to the county attorney. Districts varied in how aggressively they applied this, but the legal exposure was real.

What HB 46 Actually Changed

The Homeschool Freedom Act, passed by the Wyoming Legislature and signed into law in 2025, struck two things from the statute:

1. The blanket requirement to submit an annual curriculum to the local board of trustees.
2. The provision that non-submission constitutes prima facie evidence of non-compliance.

The law did not eliminate the underlying curriculum standard itself. Wyoming parents are still legally required to ensure their children receive instruction in all seven subjects through a sequentially progressive approach — that requirement is embedded in the definition of a "basic academic educational program" under W.S. § 21-4-101(a)(vi) and remains untouched.

What changed is the burden. The old law demanded proactive submission — you had to prove compliance upfront, annually, or risk investigation. The new law shifts to an assurance model: you are responsible for ensuring a compliant curriculum is actually being administered, but you are no longer required to deliver documentation to the district to prove it before anyone asks.

This is a meaningful legal shift. It removes the district as a gatekeeper of your curriculum choices. The board cannot refuse to acknowledge your homeschool program because your curriculum materials do not look the way they expect. Districts that were previously receiving and reviewing curriculum packets no longer have any statutory basis for demanding them.

The Exceptions: When You Still Need to Submit

This is where many parents stumble. HB 46 eliminated the general submission requirement, but three specific situations still require curriculum documentation to be provided to the district:

Public school sports and extracurricular activities. Under W.S. § 21-4-506, Wyoming public school districts must allow homeschooled students to participate in interscholastic athletics and other district-sanctioned activities on equal footing with enrolled students. However, if your child wants to play on a public school team, join the band, or participate in any extracurricular activity, the district can require curriculum submission as a condition of eligibility. The sports access right exists; the price is maintaining documented curriculum compliance.

Special education services. If your child holds an IEP or 504 plan and your family wants the district to continue providing services — speech therapy, occupational therapy, resource support — the district retains the ability to require curriculum documentation as part of that service arrangement. Pulling out of the public school system does not automatically terminate special education entitlements, but accessing them after withdrawal means staying inside the district's oversight loop.

Voluntary compliance. Some families choose to submit anyway, either because their district still asks (some administrators are operating on outdated procedures) or because they want the formal paper trail. There is no prohibition on submitting voluntarily if you prefer the documentation record.

If none of these exceptions apply to your family, you have no legal obligation under the new law to hand anything to the school district regarding your curriculum.

What Stayed Exactly the Same

A few important points that HB 46 did not touch:

The withdrawal process is unchanged. If your child is currently enrolled in a public school and you are pulling them out to homeschool independently, you still must comply with W.S. § 21-4-102(c). That statute requires an in-person meeting with a school district counselor or administrator to provide written consent to the withdrawal. This is not optional, and it is not satisfied by an email or a mailed letter. The in-person meeting is a firm legal requirement that HB 46 did not alter.

The seven-subject requirement is unchanged. You are still responsible for covering reading, writing, mathematics, civics, history, literature, and science in a sequentially progressive way. You simply do not have to prove this to anyone unless one of the three exceptions above applies.

No state testing, no minimum hours, no teacher credentials. Wyoming has never required any of these, and HB 46 does not change that. Parents do not need teaching degrees, the state does not dictate instructional hours, and mandatory standardized testing does not exist for homeschooled students.

No district diploma. Wyoming does not issue diplomas to homeschooled graduates. Parents remain responsible for generating transcripts and issuing diplomas themselves.

Pushback From Some Districts

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus publicly flagged an issue after HB 46 took effect: some districts were reportedly still attempting to demand curriculum submissions from families, treating the old law as if it were still in effect. This is not a minor administrative error — it is a violation of the new statute.

If a district administrator asks you to submit a curriculum and none of the three exceptions above apply to your situation, you are within your legal rights to decline. The appropriate response is to politely reference the amended W.S. § 21-4-102(b) and the provisions of HB 46. Document the interaction in writing. If a district escalates beyond an initial request, that is exactly the kind of overreach situation worth consulting HSLDA about.

The law is on your side. The challenge is knowing it clearly enough to hold your ground in a face-to-face conversation with a district administrator who may sincerely believe the old rules still apply.

Navigating the in-person withdrawal meeting, pushing back against district overreach, and handling the curriculum exceptions under the new law are all covered step by step in the Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint. It includes the exact statutory language you need, a meeting script, and the forms required to get your child out cleanly and legally.

Common Questions About HB 46

Does my child still need to be homeschooled in seven subjects? Yes. The Homeschool Freedom Act did not change the subject requirements. Reading, writing, math, civics, history, literature, and science must all be covered. The change is that you no longer have to submit documentation of this to the district each year — unless your child is accessing public school sports, extracurriculars, or special education services.

If I submitted curriculum last year under the old law, do I need to keep doing it? No, not unless one of the exceptions applies. The obligation ended when HB 46 took effect on July 1, 2025. Any district that continues to require annual submission as a general rule is acting outside statutory authority.

Can the district investigate my curriculum if I do not submit? The district no longer has a mechanism to initiate a curriculum review based purely on non-submission, because the law no longer treats non-submission as evidence of non-compliance. If a truancy report were filed by someone else (a neighbor, a family member), the district could investigate educational neglect through the county attorney's office — but that process is independent of the old submission requirement.

I want my child to play public school sports. How does submission work? You need to provide documentation to the district showing your program covers the required subjects. The district will use this to determine sports eligibility. Exactly what they require varies by district, so contact the activities director directly before the season begins to understand their specific process.

What if my child has an IEP? If you want to retain access to district-provided special education services after withdrawing, continue submitting curriculum documentation as the district requests. If you are withdrawing to manage your child's education entirely independently and do not intend to use district services, you are under no obligation to submit — though you should understand that the district's legal obligation to provide services ends when you exit the public school system.

The Wyoming Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers the IEP withdrawal scenario in detail, including how to request that service continuation be documented before the withdrawal meeting.

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