Wyoming's Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Explained: The Law, Who Runs It and Where It Stands

Wyoming has an education savings account program. In state law it is the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act. On the Wyoming Department of Education's website it is simply the ESA program. Same thing. If your child is eligible and not enrolled in a public school, the state puts $7,000 a year into an account you can spend on approved education costs, from private school tuition to curriculum, tutoring and therapy.

That is the short version. The longer version has a few twists, including a lawsuit that froze the money for most of the 2025-26 school year. Here is how the program is built and who is responsible for what.

The two laws behind it

The program started in 2024 with House Bill 166, the Wyoming Education Savings Accounts Act. Governor Gordon signed it on March 21, 2024. That first version tied eligibility and award size to household income, with a top award of $6,000. You can read the 2024 enrolled act on the Legislature's website.

In 2025 the Legislature rewrote it with House Bill 199. That bill renamed the program the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, raised the award to $7,000, dropped the income test for kindergarten through grade 12, kept an income limit for pre-kindergarten, added online learning programs to the list of allowed expenses, and appropriated $30 million from the general fund to a new steamboat legacy scholarship program account. The governor signed it on March 4, 2025. The 2025 enrolled act is worth skimming if you like reading the source.

The statutes live at W.S. 21-2-901 through 21-2-909, in Title 21 of the Wyoming Statutes.

Who runs it

A lot of families assume the State Treasurer runs this program, probably because the Treasurer's name shows up in news about the lawsuit. He was named as a defendant. But the statute puts the program under the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which means the Wyoming Department of Education, or WDE. The superintendent approves applications, makes the quarterly deposits, certifies providers, writes the rules and audits accounts. The department's rules for the program are its Chapter 48 rules.

The law lets the superintendent hire private companies to run parts of the program. WDE uses a company called Odyssey. Odyssey runs the online application, the family accounts, the provider applications and the online marketplace where most of the money gets spent. Program questions go to WDE at wde-esa@wyo.gov. Technical questions about the portal go to Odyssey at help.wy@withodyssey.com.

The program in five lines

• Amount: $7,000 per student per year, deposited in four equal quarterly payments.
• K-12 eligibility: a Wyoming resident who has not graduated and is eligible to attend public school. No income limit.
• Pre-K eligibility: a Wyoming child who is at least 4 by August 1 and not yet old enough for kindergarten, with household income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level. It is a one-year benefit.
• The catch: the child cannot be enrolled in a public school while in the program.
• The strings: instruction in required subjects, an annual test, spending only on qualified expenses, and annual reapplication.

Is an ESA student a homeschooler?

Legally, not quite. The law says an ESA student getting individualized instruction outside a school setting is not to be treated as a student of a home-based educational program under Wyoming's homeschool statute. Instead, a signed ESA parent agreement satisfies compulsory attendance, and the parent gives the resident school district an annual notice of participation.

In practice that means two different rulebooks. A traditional Wyoming homeschool family who takes no state money follows the homeschool law. A family who takes the ESA follows the ESA contract, which adds a required subject list, a yearly test and spending rules. You can teach at home either way. The paperwork is different.

A family weighing it

The Haldersons outside Riverton have homeschooled three kids for years without any state money. When the K-12 income test disappeared in 2025, they realized all three were eligible for the first time. Their oldest, a high school junior, wanted a community college course and a used laptop for it. Their middle child needed reading tutoring. Their youngest was fine with the curriculum they already owned. They applied for all three on one household application, which is how the program works, and planned their spending child by child, because money cannot move between siblings' accounts.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Where it stands right now

The Wyoming Education Association and several parents sued in June 2025, arguing the program violates the Wyoming Constitution. A Laramie County district judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked payments to families during the 2025-26 school year. On May 14, 2026, the Wyoming Supreme Court reversed that injunction in a decision cited as 2026 WY 54, which you can find on the court's opinions page. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the program is constitutional. That question went back to the district court, and WDE says it is still being litigated.

WDE ran a 2026-27 application that closed August 6, 2026, and says funds for approved students were available by September 1, 2026. We cover the case in more detail in a separate article, and our Steamboat Legacy Scholarship guide keeps the basics in one place.

What changed in 2026

We checked the 2026 budget session. A bill to rewrite the ESA law, House Bill 123, failed introduction in the House on February 10, 2026. We did not find a 2026 law that changed eligibility or the $7,000 amount. If that changes, the department's page will be the first place it shows up.

Before you do anything else

• Read the current ESA Family Handbook. The 2026-27 version is dated September 2026.
• Bookmark the department's ESA page and sign up for its email updates. Application news arrives there first.
• Decide whether you are comfortable with the yearly test and the subject list. That is the real tradeoff for longtime homeschoolers.
• Check whether the curriculum, tutors and classes you already use are approved by browsing our vendor directory and the Odyssey marketplace.

Bottom line

The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship is real money with real strings, run by the Department of Education through Odyssey, and still under a court challenge. For many Wyoming families who already teach at home, it is the first state program they have ever qualified for. Go in knowing what you are signing up for.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Wyoming Department of Education, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Wyoming State Treasurer, Odyssey or the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program. Program rules, amounts and the court case can change — confirm details with the Wyoming Department of Education before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.