By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

In the latest bill signing session hosted by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, he signed four new bills out of the 582 pieces of legislation he has in his backlog. Among these was SB279, the high school rodeo amendments. This bill makes it so that rodeo is included as a valid excuse for a student to be absent from school.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Mike McKell (R-Spanish Fork), explained that he felt rodeo students had felt unequal to other student-athletes in terms of treatment. “If you go out of town for a drill competition, if you go out of town for a baseball tournament, football game – those are automatically excused because they’re managed through the (Utah) High School Athletic Association.” The Senator added,” What we’re simply saying is if you’re participating in high school rodeo through the (Utah) High School Rodeo Association and you missed school, that qualifies as an excused absence.”

Both Carbon and Emery High Schools have affiliate rodeo clubs in the UHSRA. Utah State University Eastern also has a rodeo team, which encourages young athletes to stay close to home while competing in the sport they love.

McKell added,” I want to make sure we have equity with our kids that participate in a different type of sport and I want to make sure that we treat our rodeo kids the same way we treat our football players.”

This is not the only rodeo-based bill discussed during the 2025 legislative session, as SB03 appropriated a $200,000 grant to the Days of 47 rodeo.

Now that Cox has signed the bill, it will go into effect on July 1, 2025.