House panel rejects policy to check Oklahoma students’ immigration status

OKLAHOMA CITY — A House committee on Wednesday voted to reject a proposal to require public schools to ask for proof of U.S. citizenship while enrolling students.

House Administrative Rules Committee unanimously advanced Senate Joint Resolution 22, a bundle of approvals and rejections of proposed rules from the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Among the policies the resolution rejects is the proposal for citizenship checks in schools.

Before advancing the resolution, the committee voted 10-3 to strike down an amendment from Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle, that sought to approve the controversial citizenship rule. Jenkins contended Oklahoma taxpayers should have an accurate head count of undocumented children attending public schools.

The rule would have mandated that districts report to the state the number of students they enroll who were unable to verify U.S. citizenship or legal residency.

“We need a number,” Jenkins said during the committee meeting. “The taxpayers deserve that number. People have come across this border illegally during the (President Joe) Biden open border invasion, and the taxpayers have a right to know how many of these children we are supporting. And then also, equally important, we need to know how to allocate this money. How are we going to help them?”

The federal government currently forbids schools from asking families to disclose students’ immigration status. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1982 that undocumented children cannot be denied access to public education.

Jenkins said the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t preclude states from tracking students’ immigration status. Alabama passed a law in 2011 that attempted to do so that was later overturned in court, but not before absenteeism among Hispanic students increased significantly.

Republicans in the committee said Wednesday that the Education Department lacked the proper basis in state law to propose the rule. The agency attempted to assert its authority to create the regulation by relying on law that “I don’t believe applies to this,” said the committee’s leader, Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, R-Altus.

For a state agency to create an administrative rule, it must expand on existing law that relates to the policy. The Legislature and the governor then review proposed rules from every agency and can accept or reject them. If the rules are approved, they have the force of law.

Gov. Kevin Stitt already promised to block the citizenship rule if it reaches his desk. The Republican governor said last week the proposal has made some Oklahoma families afraid of sending their children to school and that “putting kids on a list is not something we should do.”

State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who originally proposed the rule, has said it would help schools accurately account for the resources needed to serve immigrant students, such as demand for English learner programs. Oklahoma schools currently provide these services without asking for proof of citizenship.

Walters also said the rule would help end “sanctuary schools” in Oklahoma and that his administration would turn over the collected information to federal immigration authorities, if asked for it.

Another of his proposed rules that the committee rejected is a requirement that all public school teachers pass a written version of the U.S. Naturalization Test to earn or renew their certification. This also has faced bipartisan pushback in the state Legislature.

The committee vote sends the resolution to the full House for consideration. SJR 22 passed the state Senate unanimously last week.