Parents enrolling children in Oklahoma public schools will be required to provide proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status under a proposed rule approved Tuesday by the State Board of Education.
The board voted unanimously to approve the rule aimed at helping President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. It still needs to be approved by the Legislature and the governor.
Here are some things to know about the proposed rule.
What does the rule require?
The rule requires parents or legal guardians to provide proof of citizenship of their children when enrolling them in public school, including a U.S. birth certificate, U.S. passport, consular report of birth abroad, permanent resident card or other legal document.
The proposed rule would not prevent students without legal status from enrolling or keep them from attending school. But it would require districts to record the number of students for whom proof of citizenship was not provided and to report those numbers, excluding personally identifiable information, to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Why is the rule being proposed?
Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the state’s education chief, said the rule is needed to help schools gather information about where to place staff and resources.
“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that,” Walters said. “It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools.”
There are an estimated 90,000 Oklahoma residents without legal status, including an estimated 6,000 children enrolled in schools in Oklahoma, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on improving immigration policy.
