Homeschooling in Wyoming

Wyoming has no deadline and no start date, so you can begin on any school day, including in the middle of a semester. The law sets no form for the notice. A short signed letter or email to the school, naming your child and the start date, does it and leaves you a dated copy.

Without that notice, the in-person withdrawal applies. The written consent you sign at that meeting must include a separate section that lets the district release your child's name and address to the Wyoming National Guard Youth Challenge program for recruiting.

Until the district knows, each day at home counts as an unexcused absence, which the school reports to the district's attendance officer. Sending your notice before the first day at home avoids that.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

Wyoming requires no homeschool records, and no one reviews them. Before July 1, 2025, you sent the local school board a curriculum each year, and not sending one counted as evidence the program fell short; the 2025 law removed both rules.

A short record still saves time when someone asks what your child has learned:

• Enrolling in a public school later
• Applying for the Hathaway Scholarship
• Applying to college, where admissions offices read a high school transcript
• Proving academic eligibility for high school sports

The useful set is small: the subjects and main materials for each year, which show all seven subjects; any test scores; and, from ninth grade on, each course with its grade and credit.

Wyoming requires no tests or evaluations of a home-based program. Tests come up only when your child steps into a school, college, or state program.

• College entrance exam: each district must let homeschooled 11th and 12th graders who live in the district take the state's college entrance exam and career readiness exam free, on the same dates as public school students. The results can go on the student's transcript.
• Hathaway Scholarship: a homeschool graduate's ACT score sets the scholarship level, explained under college.
• Sports eligibility, explained under sports.
• Education savings account: a family that takes one agrees to state assessments or a nationally normed exam, explained under money.

Every Wyoming school district must find, identify, and evaluate children with disabilities from ages 3 through 21 who are in private schools and homeschools within its boundaries. This duty is called Child Find. Because Wyoming law treats a home-based program as a private school, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) says homeschooled children with disabilities have the same rights as children their parents place in private schools. To start, ask the district where you live, in writing, for an evaluation. Once you sign consent, the district has 60 calendar days to finish the evaluation and decide eligibility.

If your child qualifies, the district writes a services plan instead of an individualized education program (IEP). The plan lists only the services the district will provide from its share of federal special education funds. Your child has no individual right to the full set of services an enrolled student receives, and the district decides which services to offer and where. It can, for example, ask your child to come to a public school for speech therapy.

No Wyoming law gives homeschoolers a right to enroll in individual public school classes, so each district sets its own policy.

Wyoming's graduation requirements apply to public schools. State law sets no graduation requirements or diploma for a home-based program, so the transcript and diploma your program produces are the record colleges and employers read.

The closest thing to a state standard for homeschool high school is the Hathaway Success Curriculum, the course list the state scholarship uses. For the three highest scholarship levels, a homeschooled student needs:

• Four years of language arts
• Four years of math, including Algebra I, Algebra II, and geometry
• Three years of social studies
• Four years of science
• Fine and performing arts, career and technical education, or a world language: four years with two in sequence for the top two levels, or two years for the third

Approved high school level courses taken before ninth grade can count toward the list.

A student can also earn a high school equivalency certificate by passing the GED or HiSET exam, both approved by the Wyoming Community College Commission. The commission says the certificate and a high school diploma serve the same purpose for jobs and further education.

The University of Wyoming (UW) admits homeschooled students on the same requirements as other high school graduates, and the instructor submits UW's Home School Credit Evaluation form to the admissions office.

The Hathaway Scholarship is open to every Wyoming homeschool graduate who applies at an eligible Wyoming college before the 21st birthday and completes the Success Curriculum. Homeschool graduates qualify by ACT score, with no grade point average requirement. For courses beginning on or after July 1, 2026, the levels are:

• Honors: ACT 25 or higher, $2,360 a semester
• Performance: ACT 21 or higher, $1,770 a semester
• Opportunity: ACT 19 or higher, $1,180 a semester
• Provisional: ACT 17 or higher, or a WorkKeys score of 12, $1,180 a semester, for up to four semesters starting at a community college

The first three levels pay for up to eight full-time semesters at UW or a Wyoming community college.

High school students can take dual enrollment courses, college classes taught by college instructors, at all of Wyoming's community colleges and UW. The courses are mainly for juniors and seniors who meet the course prerequisites, and a placement test may be required. In 2026 the legislature gave the Wyoming Community College Commission a one-time $750,000 to help the community colleges cover dual enrollment costs for homeschool students whom the district reimbursement program does not cover.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Wyoming

A Wyoming school district must let a school-age child who lives in the district and is not enrolled there full time, a homeschooler included, take part in any district activity, including sports sanctioned by the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA). The district may charge WHSAA fees and its own participation fee, but no more than full-time students pay, and no tuition.

WHSAA calls homeschooled participants affiliate members. Each year, before the season's first practice, the family applies and pays a $100 fee per home school, a catastrophic insurance fee, and the activity fee. The student shows academic eligibility with a composite score at the 25th percentile or higher on a nationally norm-referenced achievement test, good for one calendar year, or with grades from a teacher who meets WHSAA's rules. The program must meet the state's homeschool law, and all other district and WHSAA rules apply.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Wyoming

Wyoming has no state income tax, so there is no homeschool deduction or credit. The state's education savings account (ESA) program pays $7,000 a year to a Wyoming resident student not enrolled in public school, for approved costs such as curriculum, tutoring, educational technology, and therapies.

An ESA changes your legal status. A child taught at home with ESA funds is an ESA student, not a home-based program, and the signed agreement requires a yearly notice to your district, instruction in the seven subjects, and the statewide assessments or a nationally normed achievement exam.

Applications for 2026-27 closed August 6, 2026. A lawsuit filed in June 2025 challenges how the program is funded; the Wyoming Supreme Court lifted a lower court's injunction, so payments continue while the case proceeds.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Wyoming

A child can enroll in a Wyoming public school at any time. State law sets no rule for placing a returning homeschooler or for counting homeschool high school courses, so each district decides grade placement and credit under its own policy.

For an ESA student, enrolling full time in a public school stops further ESA payments, and the state superintendent may close the account. If the student later returns to the ESA program, payments can resume into the account if it is still open, or a new account can be opened.

Each school board appoints attendance officers to enforce the attendance law. When a child has an unexcused absence, the officer sends the parent written notice that attendance is required by law. If absences continue and the officer believes they are due to neglect or willful absenteeism, the officer notifies the school board and the district attorney, who may bring proceedings under the Child Protection Act or the Children in Need of Supervision Act.

A parent who willfully fails to comply with the attendance law can be ordered to perform up to 10 days of community service. A program that meets the curriculum standard satisfies the attendance law.