While parents have the freedom to choose where their child attends school, Wyoming will no longer pay for school buses to transport students from one district to another.

The Wyoming Legislature recently passed a measure that generally prohibits school districts from sending their buses into another district to pick up or drop off students who reside there.

“Of course I really only care about the cost of running buses into another district because effectively you have one bus going past another bus and the state therefore is paying for the mileage twice within that area,” said Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, who sponsored House Bill 178.

He said the bill was drafted after he learned the Wyoming Department of Education had received a complaint from a district that had students picked up within their boundaries by another district.

“This was happening in Fremont County,” Northrup said. “I later learned that it had been happening in Big Horn County and other places throughout the state.”

For instance, he said officials in Chugwater had been advertising in the Cheyenne area — encouraging students to go to Chugwater because of smaller class sizes and a better environment for children.

One district told Northrup if the law wasn’t changed, they would go into other districts to get children, as “every child is worth a dollar figure” in the way the state funds schools, he said.

In some districts, that may be $12,000 in state funding per average daily membership (ADM), while in others it could be upwards of $18,000 to $20,000, he said.

The new measure will “not have much of an impact” on Powell schools, said Stephen Janes, transportation supervisor for Park County School District No. 1. He said the bill is very similar to rules the district already follows.

“Students that live out of our district that want to attend Park 1 schools, will have to be brought to the nearest bus stop within our district’s borders, if they want to utilize our bus system,” Janes said last month.

Rep. Northrup said that parents’ freedom “to choose a district or even a school is still fully represented and not in the bill and was not part of the discussion.” He added that the bill “actually mirrors the previous rules within the Wyoming Department of Education.”

The bill was amended to make exceptions for students who are taken into protective custody, to ensure their educational stability. It also allows districts to transport students for shared services “for the purpose of efficiency.”

Janes said matters concerning students attending out-of-district schools were usually handled at the district level.

Park 1’s boundaries encompass over 1,400 square miles.

“Our district is large and expands west all the way into Yellowstone Park,” Janes said. “All of the Clark area students are in our district and this bill will not have any impact on them.”

House Bill 178 passed unanimously in the House, with one representative excused. The Senate approved the bill on a 25-5 vote, with local senators in support. Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill into law last month, and it will take effect July 1.