The State Board of Education passed a new regulation Tuesday requiring parents to show documentation of their child’s U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status when enrolling their children in Oklahoma public schools.
In order to support President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, the board overwhelmingly approved the rule. The governor and the legislature still need to ratify it.
The rule is necessary to assist schools in gathering data regarding staffing and resource placement, according to Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the state’s education director.
“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that,” Walters stated. “It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools.”
The proposed rule would force districts to maintain a tally, but it would not prohibit students without legal status from registering or attending classes.
According to Walters, he will back Trump’s initiatives to enforce immigration laws, including letting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers visit Oklahoma schools.
“Schools are crippled by the flood of illegal immigrants and the Biden/Harris open border policy,” Walters stated. “Oklahomans and the country elected President Trump and we will do everything possible to help put Oklahoma students first.”
For the most of his first term in office, Walters has been criticizing what he calls “woke” philosophy in public schools, pushing for Bible study in classrooms, and trying to get books out of school libraries.
According to Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City’s predominantly Hispanic south side, the idea has drawn harsh criticism from educators and civil liberties organizations and is inciting fear among immigrant communities in Oklahoma.
“The community is scared, obviously,” Alonso-Sandoval stated. “The conversations I’ve had with parents, all they’re doing is trying to provide the best opportunity for their kids, like any parents. They are starting to question: Do I unenroll my child from school?”
In a letter to parents and employees last month, following the rule’s initial proposal, Superintendent Jamie Polk of Oklahoma City Public Schools, one of the biggest districts in the state, stated that every child, regardless of immigration status, is entitled to a public education under federal law.
“OKCPS does not currently collect the immigration status of our students or their families, and we do not have any plans to do so,” she stated.
A 1982 Supreme Court ruling known as Plyler v. Doe gave children of families who were unlawfully in the nation the ability to attend public school for many years. The judges ruled in a 5-4 decision that denying children an education because of their immigrant status is unconstitutional.
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In 2011, Alabama tried to enact a comprehensive immigration law that would require public schools to inquire about students’ legal status. However, after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the measures, the state decided to permanently prevent them.
Citing recent Supreme Court decisions that have overturned longtime norms regarding abortion rights and affirmative action in higher education, immigration experts advise that efforts to overturn the Plyler decision should be treated seriously.
