The Oklahoma Board of Education on Tuesday approved a proposal that would require parents to declare their citizenship status when enrolling their students in schools.
The 6-0 vote sends the proposal to the state legislature, where lawmakers and the governor would have to approve it before it could take effect.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters emphasized the purpose of the proposal is to acquire more data.
“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that. It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” he said.
The proposal says school districts would relay only the total number of students who have parents without documentation to the state and would not give out personal information or names of parents.
“Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prohibit, or inhibit, any child from receiving the education they are entitled to receive,” the proposal said.
The proposal has seen some backlash as Walters has before made clear he will carry out President Trump’s agenda. The Department of Homeland Security is now allowing ICE to go to school buildings, although there have been no reports of that happening yet.
“All children have a constitutional right to equal access to education regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. Requiring school districts to collect information about immigration status illegally chills access to this opportunity, interfering with their ability to focus on their core mission: to educate children and give all students the ability to grow, thrive, and participate fully in our democracy,” National Immigration Law Center said in a statement opposing the proposal.
Walters said the proposal would have the state education department work with each school district to determine where parents would have to upload proof of citizenship.
The proposal does not say the citizenship of a student would have to be reported.
“It would frankly be a pretty easy change, because there’s already a lot of information that we require when a student enrolls in a district,” he said.
