JUNE 10, 2025 |
Photo – Sign outside of CCSD#1 Main Office – Courtesy CCSD#1 website
The Carbon County School District One Board is considering a policy to exclude all homeschool students from non-sports activities.
During the March legislative session, the Wyoming House of Representatives created House Bill 199, or the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act. The measure provides state-funded scholarships to help families afford private schooling or homeschooling.
Wyoming Statute 21-4-506 states that all Wyoming High School Activities Association sponsored athletic and activity programs must be made available to students who live within the school district boundaries, even if they aren’t enrolled in school.
Here in Carbon County, homeschool students in both school districts are also able to participate in core subjects, such as math and language classes, as well as extracurricular activities like band. However, due to the creation of the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, the District One School Board is considering changing its policy to now exclude homeschool students from those classes.
According to a transcript of the May 15th CCSD1 Board meeting, Superintendent Mike Hamel proposed barring families who use education savings accounts from enrolling in non-sports programs. Superintendent Hamel acknowledged that students have benefited from attending classes in the past, but stated that, due to House Bill 199, District One can no longer include those children in its state reports. The superintendent recommended charging those families a fee to enroll in school activities.
The Steamboat Legacy Act is funded through the state’s general fund and does not specifically take money away from Wyoming’s public schools. However, school districts must report student enrollment for state funding purposes. Once a student enrolls in the education savings account program, they are withdrawn from public school enrollment, meaning the district no longer receives per-pupil funding for that student.
District One Special Services Director and Board member Tanya Wall pointed out that the school is unable to determine who is participating in the education savings account program until after they’ve registered for classes.
This led to School Board members Marnie Garner and Cheryl Engstrom to suggest barring all homeschoolers, with both members saying, “Shut the doors.”
Other Board members reluctantly agreed that the school should cease offering non-sports activities to all homeschool students, stating that parents must take responsibility for enrolling their children in the education savings account program. District One Superintendent Mike Hamel stated, “Currently we take everybody, but we want these students to be engaged in our schools. We have the right to say no to these parents who want only to take certain classes.”
Due to the difficulty of identifying which families are using the education savings account program, the District One School Board has proposed prohibiting all homeschool students from enrolling in non-sports classes.
The Board has drafted an official policy to formalize this restriction.
The new policy will be read for the first time during the June 26th District One School Board meeting. The meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. and is open to the public. A virtual link to the meeting is available on the Carbon County School District Number One website, under the events tab.
Bigfoot99 has reached out to Superintendent Mike Hamel for clarification regarding the proposed policy. As of the reporting of this story, Superintendent Hamel has not responded to our request for comment.
