Oklahoma Education Board Approves Proposal Requiring Parents To Disclose Immigration Status for Student Enrollment

The Oklahoma Board of Education approved a proposal on Tuesday that requires all parents to declare their child’s immigration status or citizenship when enrolling them in schools in the state. 

After a 6-0 vote, the proposal now heads to the state legislature — where lawmakers and the governor will have to approve it before it can officially take effect. 

According to Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, the proposal will be used to acquire more data about illegal immigrant children’s status. However, a CNN article posted on a January 28^th reported that parents will have to declare their own immigration status or citizenship as well.

Parents or legal guardians will have to provide a “U.S. birth certificate, U.S. passport, consular report of birth abroad, permanent resident card or other legal document,” according to AP News.

“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that. It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” Walters explained. 

Students without legal status would not be prohibited from enrolling or attending classes under the proposed rule. However, it would mandate that districts keep track of the number of kids whose evidence of citizenship was not presented — submitting those figures to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, excluding any personally identifiable information.

“Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prohibit, or inhibit, any child from receiving the education they are entitled to receive,” the proposal states.  

Walters also offered a fair warning to those applying to Oklahoma schools.

“If a law enforcement official comes in and asks for information, we’re legally required to provide that information,” Walters continued. “If they come and ask us for certain information, we’ll happily provide that.”

“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 concluded. 

JUST IN: Oklahoma’s Board of Education has just voted to approve a proposal requiring parents to provide proof of citizenship when enrolling their child in school. pic.twitter.com/4uHPTLk8w6

— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) January 28, 2025

Public schools are funded by American citizens. Ensuring those benefits go to legal residents is basic governance.

— TechSignals (@TechSignalsonX) January 28, 2025

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