Wyoming: Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act

ESA students will receive an annual maximum of $7,0000, disbursed quarterly, for eligible educational expenses.

• Income Limit: None for K-12, 250% FPL for pre-K
• Prior Year Public School Requirement: None
• Testing Mandates: State or nationally-norm referenced
• Special Needs Pathway: None

Wyoming’s ESA program is open to all kindergarten through 12th grade students. It is also open to pre-kindergarten students whose families have a total household income at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. A student cannot participate if they have graduated high school or received an equivalency certificate.

For a detailed step-by-step walkthrough visit here. An overview of the steps can be viewed below.

1. Create a Parent Account or Login
2. Start the application

1. Step 1: Parent or Guardian Information
2. Step 2: Student Information
3. Step 3: Additional Information: May be used to verify residency or income.
4. Step 4: Parent/Guardian Acknowledgement
5. Step 5: Verification Documents
6. Step 6: Selecting a school

ESA funds for qualifying expenses include the following:

• Tuition and fees at a qualified school
• Tutoring services provided by an individual or a tutoring facility, but cannot be provided by an ESA student’s immediate family
• Services contracted for and provided by a public school district, to include individual classes and extracurricular activities and programs
• Textbooks, curriculum, and other instructional or supplemental materials required for instruction required by a curriculum or education service provider
• Computer hardware or other technological devices that are primarily used to help meet an ESA student’s educational needs
• Educational software and applications
• School uniforms
• Fees for nationally standardized assessments, advanced placement exams, and exams for college or university admission and tuition and fees for preparatory courses for the exams
• Tuition and fees for summer education programs and specialized after school education programs, but not including after school childcare programs
• Tuition, fees, instructional materials and examination fees at a career or technical school
• Educational services and therapies including, but not limited to, occupational, behavioral, physical, speech-language and audiology therapies
• Tuition and fees at an institution of higher education
• Fees for transportation paid to a fee-for-service transportation provider for the student to travel to and from an education service provider
• Tuition and fees for nongovernmental online learning programs
• Any other educational expense approved by the state superintendent

Any funds remaining in a student's ESA at the end of the school year can be rolled over to the next school year, provided the student remains enrolled in the ESA program.

Additional Program Guidelines

• Enrollment Cap: Limited by $30M Appropriation to 4,071 Total Participants
• Account Cap: $7,000
• Budget Cap: $30 million

Participant and Family Guidelines

• Click Here for the Program Administrator’s Parent Handbook
• Education Requirements:

• Participating students in K⁠–⁠12 receive instruction in, at minimum, reading, writing, mathematics, civics, including studies of the US and Wyoming constitutions, history, literature and science
• Participating students must take the statewide assessment or a nationally normed achievement exam.
• Parent Supplemented Funds/Scholarships: Allowed
• Disbursement Payment/Frequency: Quarterly
• Reimbursement: Allowed
• Parents of eligible students and ESA recipients are permitted to intervene in any lawsuit for the purposes of defending the ESA program’s constitutionality.

• Miscellaneous:

• At least 2% of ESA are subject to annual audit, state will contract for it
• Annually provide the student’s resident public school district notice of intent to participate in the ESA program
• Certification that the ESA student is not enrolled in a public school district

• Priority: The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act creates a new priority system in the event that more applications are received than there are ESAs that can be awarded. Priority will be first-come, first-serve, subject to the following students:

• An eligible student who received funds under an ESA in the preceding school year;
• A sibling of an eligible student who either receives ESA funds at the time that the sibling is applying for their own ESA, or who received an ESA in the school year preceding the school year for which the sibling is applying for an ESA.

Education Provider Guidelines

• Accreditation/Approval: Certified by state superintendent of public instruction, who at minimum determines that ESA students in K⁠–⁠12 will receive instruction in, at minimum, reading, writing, mathematics, civics, history, literature and science
• Employment Standards: See “accreditation/approval” above
• Nondiscrimination: Federal
• Calendar/Curriculum/Attendance: Ensure instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, civics, including studies of the US and Wyoming constitutions, history, literature, and science
• Financial: May be required to purchase a surety bond if receiving more than $150,000 in ESA funds
• Miscellaneous: Agree not to refund, rebate or share ESA funds with parents or ESA students, except to the ESA accounts in accordance with procedures established by the superintendent

 (Last updated May 8, 2025) 

W.S. 21-2-901 through W.S. 21-2-909; W.S. 21-4-102; W.S. 21-4-301 and W.S. 21-13-310

(Last updated May 8, 2025)