Education

Legislation to open OSSAA hearings and ease transfer restrictions heads to governor

May 6, 2026

Ray Carter

Under legislation headed to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk, students who open-transfer into a new district will no longer be automatically barred from participating in athletics for a year, and more hearings conducted by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) would be subject to the state’s open-meeting laws.

House Bill 2153, by state Rep. Rob Hall and state Sen. Avery Frix, enacts those two reforms. While the OSSAA’s board meetings are currently subject to open-meetings laws, many of the group’s hearings will also be opened by HB 2153, aside from situations involving protected student information.

HB 2153 mandates that all OSSAA hearings, particularly hearings regarding “rule violations, eligibility determinations, and requests for hardship waivers,” must be conducted in an open meeting that members of the public can attend.

State Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City, objected to eliminating the provision of state law that requires a transfer student to be barred from athletics for a year.

“I’m concerned that just removing this legislation and allowing people to immediately go to varsity just kind of puts dead in the water the parameters we have on ensuring that education is the first priority for students and not sports and activities,” Pogemiller said.

Hall noted that the OSSSAA would still have the ability to require students to sit out for a year.

Because existing law allows exemptions for emergency situations, even as state law otherwise requires a one-year delay in sports participation, critics have argued that OSSAA has applied the one-year ban inconsistently, allowing some youth to participate in sports while telling other similarly situated students they are prohibited by state law.

“The decisions that they make are resting solely on OSSAA moving forward,” said Hall, R-Tulsa. “They can’t punt to the Legislature and say, ‘Well, the statute says this,’ even though their rules are really what’s de facto controlling the situation.”

The OSSAA, which has been deemed a “state actor” by the courts, has been embroiled in repeated controversies in recent years over alleged inconsistent application of the organization’s rules when students transfer to a new district and seek to participate in extracurricular activities, ranging from band to drama to football.

During a November 2025 legislative hearing, lawmakers were told that OSSAA officials had often been arbitrary in their rulings, depriving numerous students of participation in sporting events, including youths dealing with family tragedies or escaping abuse at a prior school.

HB 2153 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 72-17 vote. The legislation, which previously passed the Oklahoma Senate, now goes to the governor.