Committee asks Legislative Service Office to draft two committee bills on homeschool activities and class access

The Joint Education Committee voted to request two committee bill drafts addressing recurring questions about homeschool students’ participation in district activities and access to classes for reimbursement.

Representative (title) John Lawley and other members described three potential bills under personal drafting; the committee voted to have the Legislative Service Office prepare two as committee bills for consideration in November. The two items the committee prioritized are: (1) clarifying Wyoming Statute 21‑4‑506(a) regarding participation in activities to explicitly include middle school activities and (2) drafting policy language on whether public school districts must offer classes to homeschool students (with reimbursement mechanics), including consideration of grade‑level thresholds and access consistency across districts.

Representative Volley (committee member) and others said the activities clarification is a one‑sentence fix needed because some local boards are changing past practices. Representative Bratton and members reported specific district decisions where boards considered excluding homeschool students from activities or classes; one Carbon County board briefly proposed excluding middle school students from band and later reversed course after community feedback.

Tanya Heitrich (LSO) reported two of the requested drafts are complete and the third is in review. Committee members voted to draft the two bills as committee bills and examine them at the November meeting; the motion carried.

Ending: LSO will prepare the drafts for committee review in November; legislators said they wanted to see the language before deciding whether to advance the measures as committee bills in a future session.