A city council vote on Tuesday in a Nebraska town could deem resident Andrew Coates’s application eligible to become a full-time firefighter, despite being previously barred from the position for being homeschooled. 

Coates, a 22-year-old man from Fremont, Nebraska, applied to be a full-time firefighter at the Fremont Fire Department in April 2026 after serving as a volunteer firefighter in the neighboring town of Cedar Bluffs for two years. To his shock, he received a notice from the city’s HR department that his application had been denied because he was homeschooled. 

In the city of Fremont, the requirements for the job had expanded to include high school graduation from an accredited high school. Coates told The Washington Stand that when he submitted his application, the “accredited” part of the rule did not exist — it was only after he applied that it appeared. 

In the state of Nebraska, homeschools are not state-accredited, and instead function as “exempt” schools. The neighboring city Omaha doesn’t have the same discrimination against homeschoolers in its rules. The vote on Tuesday will be on a resolution proposed by Fremont Mayor Dev Sookram to clear the way to reinstate Andrew’s application. It is also supported by Councilman Paul Von Behren and Councilwoman Sally Ganem.

“There is more than enough evidence to say that homeschools [and] private schools are certainly at least equivalent to our public education system,” Von Behren told WOWT. “This [the mayor’s resolution] puts that to rest and puts everyone on an equal footing.”

“It rights a wrong in policy,” Sookram explained. “So now homeschoolers have equal opportunity to be employed.”

“We’ve cut several weeks out of the process,” Von Behren said. “We just need to get this behind us and get on to bring the community back together.”

Ahead of the hearing, Family Research Council Action’s legislative affiliate FRC Action put out an alert so that supporters can contact the city council ahead of the Tuesday night meeting and ask them to end the discrimination against homeschoolers. So far, nearly 2,000 people have contacted the city council.

Over the weekend, Coates and his parents attended Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit in Leesburg, Virginia to share their story during a panel discussion and offer encouragement to other homeschooling families. “It’s a humbling experience to be able to be an encouragement to other people,” Andrew’s father Seth Coates told TWS. 

Coates shared with TWS he is grateful people across the country have shown support. He has received offers of employment from fire departments across the country as far as South Carolina since his story gained national attention. But for Coates, being close to home is important, where his family has a history of civil service.

“We’ve lived there for generations,” Seth Coates explained. “My father was employed by the city; I’m friends with people in City Hall. … We were born and raised [here]. ... it’s our hometown.”

“That’s home. That’s where I want to be. I have a lot of friends on the department, and just that’s my hometown,” Andrew added. “So that’s my group of people. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

He shared that his friends in the fire department where he volunteered have rallied around him since his application was rejected. “They initially were like, ‘What kind of trouble did you get into?’ And then I explained the situation, and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a little messed up.’ They’ve been nothing but supportive. … They want to know how to help and how to jump in, and it’s good to know I’ve got another brotherhood that is willing to help and step in.”

“The disagreement that we have with City Hall in the way that the hiring process was administered is not indicative at all of any problem with the fire department itself,” Seth Coates clarified. 

Andrew’s father continued that prior to the story’s attention in the press, the family had not received a lot of support from state officials. “I don’t necessarily blame them. … We’re just thankful that they’re supportive now, and it’s caused a lot to come out in support of homeschooling.”

Seth Coates said his message for other homeschool families concerned their children will be discriminated against is not to give up. “Don’t abandon homeschooling because you think there’s going to be a barrier for your child. … You can remove those barriers. God has just given us a story to be able to encourage other people that they can [take a] stand.”

He continued, “Our desire has always been to meet [with City Hall] and to have a conversation and to come to a resolution, and so I just think that perhaps they were being discouraged from doing that. … I guess I don’t know the whole story. But I do think it’s a learning experience for the city council, for the mayor… even for us.”

The younger Coates explained that he and his family are not mad at the Fremont City Council. “It’s just a little disappointing that none of them stood up to this when it was first an issue. We just want them to realize that homeschoolers deserve an equal opportunity, like everybody else does, to compete for the same job based on merit, fitness, and efficiency.”

Seth Coates concurred. “Even if we disagree and we can’t have that conversation, in this case, it unfortunately leads to national negative attention on a city that we love. I mean, we love our city, and so it hurts that the nation has to see that it’s exposed for disregarding homeschooling and disregarding Christian education. It’s tough to see, but we still love our city.”

While they are looking forward to hear the final result of the hearing, the Coates’s say it appears there is more support for their cause on the city council than before. The family says that they are hoping that when Wednesday morning comes, Andrew will finally be given the ability to achieve his dream of becoming a firefighter. Coates said that he is looking forward to applying again locally when there is another position available.