By Paige Orr, Fox23 News
TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Senate approved a measure Wednesday aimed at pulling back the curtain on high school activity governing and shifting the authority over student transfers away from state statute and back to the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.
House Bill 2153 requires the OSSAA to open its eligibility hearings to the public under the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. While the association has operated under open meeting laws for its board meetings for years, this legislation extends that requirement to committee hearings where individual student cases are decided.
“This simply takes it out of statute and allows OSSAA to make those decisions on their own without the statute dictating how they make those decisions,” said State Sen. Avery Frix (R-Muskogee), the bill’s Senate author.
Frix noted that the changes are intended to protect students from inconsistently applied rulings. He argued that students should not be denied the ability to participate in activities that best meet their needs.
“House Bill 2153 increases transparency in how those decisions are made,” Frix said in a statement. “These changes will ensure that changes involving students’ academic or athletic activities are made fairly and consistently, and most importantly, with accountability.”
Currently, the OSSAA determines transfer eligibility through a “hardship waiver” process, which reviews family or financial struggles on a case-by-case basis. However, some parents expressed concerns that loosening transfer restrictions could lead to “super-teams” or the displacement of students who have remained loyal to their home districts.
The bill faced scrutiny on the Senate floor specifically for its emergency clause, which would make the changes take effect immediately upon being signed into law.
Supporters argued the emergency clause is necessary to ensure the new rules are in place before the start of the upcoming school year to maintain consistency for students.
OSSAA Executive Director David Jackson said the organization is committed to maintaining a level playing field across all 27 athletic and academic activities it oversees. He emphasized that the legislation does not mean the rules are being discarded.
“For them to repeal that does not remove OSSAA’s authority to rule on eligibility transfers,” Jackson said. “It takes the specifics of the law out to where basically it gives us a little more flexibility in managing eligibility.”
The OSSAA is currently preparing for its own nine-month rule review committee to evaluate its regulations as the landscape of high school activities continues to change.
The bill passed the Senate with a 35-12 vote and now heads back to the Oklahoma House of Representatives for further consideration before reaching the governor’s desk.
You can read the full bill below:
