Homeschool Freedom Act would remove requirement for homeschoolers to report to school district

GILLETTE — Right now, homeschool families in Wyoming are required to submit a curriculum to the local school district each year. A proposed bill would amend state law to remove this requirement.

House Bill 46, the Homeschool Freedom Act, would eliminate this requirement of reporting to the school district and change the statute to say that it’s the homeschool families’ responsibility to “ensure” that a curriculum is being administered to the students.

State law says a homebased educational program shall meet the requirements of a basic academic educational program according to state statute.

Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, is a cosponsor of the bill. She said there are many homeschoolers who want nothing to do with the government, and that this bill is just offering them more protection and freedom.

Commissioner Scott Clem, R-Gillette, said he likes the bill, but added that there could be unintended consequences.

His oldest daughter was homeschooled through ninth grade. She attended Campbell County High School for tenth through twelfth grades, where she ran cross-country and track. She graduated from CCHS and got a scholarship at Black Hills State University.

But the NCAA wouldn’t let her compete at her first meet because “they wanted documentation from her freshman year.”

“It was interesting that the NCAA came back and said, your high school diploma isn’t sufficient,” he said. “Thankfully the school district was able to work [it out], in part because of some of these requirements. You take that away, you might be causing issues.”

Rep. Ken Clouston, R-Gillette, said that during his time on the school board, many of the community’s best students were homeschooled, and that “a lot of them do tremendous work,” but sometimes there would be homeschool students who would be grades behind.

He said he expects the Wyoming School Boards Association will want to weigh in on this bill.

“This is just more of an assurance,” Clouston said. “It helps keep those kids caught up…if the parents aren’t doing a great job.”

Angelos said most homeschool parents are following the rules already.

“We don’t give our homeschool families enough credit, most of them are documenting,” she said. “Those families, I think, do know that, if their child is going to get into college, they need to prove it. I think the biggest thing is, how much oversight does the government have?”

Clem said while he wasn’t a fan of the reporting requirement, he understands why it was there.

“We were grumbling as we were going to the school district,” he said. “At the end of the day, having gone through it all, our school district here wasn’t so nosy, they weren’t mandating things, it was just wanting to make sure. It was more for our benefit.”