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Wyoming

Wyoming, like all states, has a unique early childhood policy landscape that is shaped by economics, demographics, political history, coalitions, and other factors that create a state-specific environment for policy advocacy.

State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s environment and the numerous efforts—by the organizations listed on this page, other organizations, parents, policymakers, practitioners, and more—who work both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

2024 State Early Childhood Policy Environment and Progress

Early Childhood Landscape:

Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.

Young Children in Low-Income Households: Unchanged

Approximately 36% (21,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200% FPL (2022). This number was the same in 2021.¹

Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: High

Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200% FPL than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.²

Advocacy Landscape:

State General Fund Appropriations: Growing

Wyoming’s governor signed the state’s budget bill for fiscal 2025-2026 on March 22, with several line-item vetoes. The biennial budget provides for total fund spending of $10.9 billion, including $3.4 billion in general fund spending and $2.7 billion in School Foundation Program Account spending, over two years. (The prior biennium budget contained appropriations and transfers of $2.8 billion from the general fund and appropriations of $1.8 billion from the School Foundation Program Account.) The budget was based on the state’s January consensus revenue forecast, which projects total general fund revenues of $3.8 billion for the 2025-2026 biennium, compared to $3.6 billion for the fiscal 2023-2024 biennium. The forecast projects a balance of $152.5 million in the Budget Reserve Account and $1.6 billion in the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account.³

Key Revenue Sources (after federal transfers):⁴

- - Charges ($3,348 per capita)
  - Property taxes ($2,160 per capita)
  - Severance Taxes ($751 per capita)

Charges are public payments connected with a specific government service, such as tuition paid to a state university, payments to a public hospital, or highway tolls. Severance revenue, which comes from taxes on the extraction of natural resources such as oil and natural gas, is extremely volatile and can quickly rise and fall with the price and production of natural resources.

State Budget Rules:⁴

Wyoming uses a biennial budget. Wyoming uses one of the least strict processes in implementing its budget. There are no balanced budget requirements, no tax or expenditure limits, and no limits on authorized debt and debt service.

Political Alignment:5 Aligned Republican

During the 2024 session, the state’s Senate and House were both Republican controlled. The state’s Governor was also a Republican.

Types of Ballot Measures Available:⁶Three

- Voter-initiated state statute – Earns a spot on the ballot when sponsors collect signatures according to the laws governing the initiative process in Wyoming.
- Legislature-initiated constitutional amendment – A constitutional amendment that appears on a state’s ballot as a ballot measure because the state legislature in that state voted to put it before the voters.
- Veto referendum – When citizens of Wyoming disagree with a statute or legislative enacted, a veto referendum can be placed on the statewide ballot.

Key State Policy Advocacy Organizations Include:

Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Multi-State Initiatives Include:⁷

2023 Policy Progress:

Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:⁸

Working together, advocates won a significant increase in developmental preschool funding. Wyoming has 14 developmental preschools which provide services for children with developmental disabilities and to those without disabilities. Over the years, the state has severely underfunded the preschools. For reference, in 2020, the Dept of Health requested $3.7 million, which was denied. In 2021, it requested $8 million, which was also denied. In 2022, the department made a $9.1 million ECA request, and $1.09 million was approved. And in 2023, the total requested was $11 million, and the legislature approved $4 million. Three preschools shared they would run through their reserves in the coming year and need to close if funding were not increased. The $12.2 million approved this year is three times the amount from the previous year.

HB 126 asserts child care is a residential use of property, which allows child care in a home day care setting (up to 10 children) as a non-commercial, residential, use in an HOA or covenant if not specifically denied by the HOA prior to July 1, 2024. Advocates continue to work to overcome zoning and covenant restrictions that limit child care capacity.

Advocates were successful in the work to support youth and childhood mental health. A budget amendment creates a $15M grant fund which may be utilized in the k-12 system to address youth mental health. Wyoming consistently has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation and Wyoming’s services are limited. This fund could allow for supports in a multitude of ways, including programming or allocation for contract counselors, etc. The funding’s road to passage was contentious. It was introduced as a bill during session, targeted by opponents, defeated, and then ultimately adopted in the budget.

Ongoing Grantee Areas of Advocacy:

The Alliance for Early Success’ key ally in Wyoming is the Wyoming Community Foundation (WYCF), a statewide grantmaking organization that includes the Wyoming Women’s Foundation and the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance. WYCF also works with the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center to collect KidsCount data on child and family wellbeing.

Wyoming Community Foundation is working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework:

Early Care and Education

Preschool and Pre-K

Child and
Maternal Health

Maternal Health

Infant & Child Health

Family
Supports

Family Economic Security

Early Childhood Infrastructure

Financing

Click here for more information on advocates’ policy agenda.

RECENT ADVOCACY SNAPSHOT:

Wyoming Coalition Comes Together to Offer New Support for Early Childhood Educators

January 29, 2020

The Wyoming Early Childhood Professional Learning Collaborative — initiated when the Wyoming Early Childhood Outreach Network (WYECON) and Wyoming Kids First started to explore opportunities to improve the quality of early childhood education in the state — is working full steam to improve the opportunities for Wyoming’s youngest learners by supporting the professional development of their early childhood educators.

NOTES:

¹Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, January, 2024.

²National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, March 2023, NCCP analysis of ACS 1-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2021.

³National Association of State Budget Officers, Proposed and Enacted Budgets, FY 2025.

⁴Urban Institute, State Fiscal Briefs, June 2024.

⁵National Conference of State Legislatures, 2024 State & Legislative Partisan Composition, April 29, 2024.

⁶Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, retrieved July, 2024.

⁷Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, July, 2024.

⁸Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-October, 2024; and 2024 Prenatal-to-3 Legislative Highlights, Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, July, 2024.