Wyoming Joins the Federal §25F Scholarship Tax Credit, Moving Gov. Gordon From 2025 'Review' to Participation

Wyoming has joined the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (§25F). On June 8, 2026, the IRS released IR-2026-76, which lists Wyoming among 27 states participating in the federal Scholarship Tax Credit program enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill. Per that release, taxpayers may claim a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Wyoming had already been counted among the advance-notice states by April 15, 2026, when K-12 Dive reported that 27 states had signaled participation and named Wyoming explicitly. The state’s appearance on the official roster confirms that Wyoming submitted its advance election to the IRS, putting it inside the group of states whose residents will have an in-state §25F program when the credit goes live January 1, 2027.

The outcome closes a notable gap. In August 2025, Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, was publicly noncommittal: in Wyoming Public Media reporting dated August 12, 2025, his spokesperson Michael Pearlman said the office was “currently reviewing the school choice provision” and that the governor wanted a “plan that best fits Wyoming.” That posture was a review, not a refusal, and the move from review to participation tracks the broader trajectory of red and purple states this year. Wyoming was not among the earliest filers profiled when the first wave of states elected in around January 2026 (it first surfaces on the public count in mid-April), so its arrival on the June roster represents the deliberate, later end of that process rather than a day-one commitment like the ones we covered in Florida or Virginia.

The mechanics are the same in every participating state. A state opts in when its governor files an advance election with the IRS and designates qualifying SGOs. Donors anywhere in the country can then claim a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 per taxpayer for contributions to a qualifying SGO, which awards K-12 scholarships to families earning up to 300% of their area median gross income. The cap is $1,700 per taxpayer, a point worth underlining because of recurring confusion over whether married couples get double; for the statutory detail, see our explainer on why the credit is $1,700, not $3,400. The credit takes effect January 1, 2027, and a state that files an election gives its residents both an in-state place to give and an in-state pathway for families to receive scholarships.

For donors, families, and prospective SGO founders in Wyoming, the practical takeaway is that the state is now in. Wyoming taxpayers will be able to route §25F-eligible donations to in-state SGOs once the program is operational, and Wyoming families will be eligible to receive the scholarships those organizations fund. Because Wyoming is a comparatively small market with a still-thin school-choice infrastructure, the first organizations to stand up scholarship programs will define how the credit reaches families across the state. Operators weighing whether to launch one of Wyoming’s first SGOs can review how the organizations work in our explainers and see the current national landscape in the SGO directory; the back-office work of donor intake, eligibility checks, and scholarship disbursement can be run on software built specifically for §25F. Wyoming’s status, and every other state’s, is tracked on our Wyoming state page and the national participation map.

The forward question is how quickly Wyoming designates and stands up qualifying SGOs before the January 1, 2027 launch, since an election on the federal roster is only the first step. The IRS’s 27-state count, detailed in our coverage of the official June 2026 participation list, marks the program crossing the halfway point of states, and Wyoming’s late but firm entry suggests the “wait and see” camp is thinning. With the credit now confirmed for Wyoming, the measure of success shifts from whether the state opts in to how many in-state organizations are ready to receive donations on day one.