OKLAHOMA CITY — Dad and mom enrolling youngsters in Oklahoma public colleges might be required to offer proof of their little one’s US citizenship or authorized immigration standing beneath a proposed rule accepted Tuesday by the State Board of Training.
The board voted unanimously to approve the rule aimed toward serving to President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies. It nonetheless must be accepted by the Legislature and the governor.
Listed below are some issues to know concerning the proposed rule.
What does the rule require?
The rule requires mother and father or authorized guardians to offer proof of citizenship of their youngsters when enrolling them in public faculty, together with a US beginning certificates, US passport, consular report of beginning overseas, everlasting resident card or different authorized doc.
The proposed rule wouldn’t forestall college students with out authorized standing from enrolling or hold them from attending faculty. However it could require districts to document the variety of college students for whom proof of citizenship was not supplied and to report these numbers, excluding personally identifiable data, to the Oklahoma State Division of Training.
Why is the rule being proposed?
Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the state’s training chief, mentioned the rule is required to assist colleges collect details about the place to position employees and assets.
“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that,” Walters mentioned. “It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools.”
There are an estimated 90,000 Oklahoma residents with out authorized standing, together with an estimated 6,000 youngsters enrolled in colleges in Oklahoma, in response to the Migration Coverage Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based suppose tank targeted on enhancing immigration coverage.
How are folks reacting to the rule?
Whereas the board met, a whole bunch of scholars and protesters gathered outdoors the administration constructing to protest the board’s determination.
The plan has been sharply criticized by academics and civil liberty teams, and is inflicting concern inside Oklahoma’s immigrant communities, mentioned Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma Metropolis’s closely Hispanic south facet.
“The community is scared, obviously,” Alonso-Sandoval mentioned. “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?”
Javier Terrazas, a building employee from south Oklahoma Metropolis with an elementary school-aged daughter, mentioned he’s seen how fearful some residents are once they go to choose up their youngsters.
“Seeing the parents’ faces, the look of fear when I go to pick up my daughter,” he mentioned whereas protesting the board’s determination. “All people is wanting over their shoulder. I’ve by no means seen that.
“It’s tough seeing that. It’s heartbreaking.”
At Oklahoma Metropolis Public Faculties, one of many state’s largest districts, Superintendent Jamie Polk mentioned in a letter to oldsters and employees final month — after the rule was first proposed — that federal regulation ensures each little one’s proper to a public training, no matter immigration standing.
“OKCPS does not, nor do we have plans to, collect the immigration status of our students or their families,” she mentioned.
What’s going to Oklahoma do with the data?
Walters has mentioned he’ll assist efforts by Trump to implement immigration legal guidelines, together with by permitting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers into Oklahoma colleges.
He reiterated that place on Tuesday, saying the division stands able to share any immigration data it gathers with regulation enforcement companions.
“If a law enforcement official comes in and asks for information, we’re legally required to provide that information,” he mentioned. “If they come and ask us for certain information, we’ll happily provide that.”
Walters has spent a lot of his first time period in workplace attacking what he describes as “woke” ideology in public colleges, requiring Bible instruction in school rooms and trying to ban books from faculty libraries.
What does present regulation say?
A 5-4 US Supreme Court docket ruling in 1982, often known as Plyer vs. Doe, affirmed the precise of youngsters dwelling within the nation illegally to attend public colleges, though some conservative lawmakers have questioned whether or not immigrants with out authorized residency ought to have the precise to a public training.
Alabama tried to require public colleges to ask the immigration standing of scholars as a part of a sweeping immigration regulation in 2011, however the state finally agreed to completely block these provisions after a federal appeals courtroom quickly halted them.
Immigration specialists say makes an attempt to undermine the Plyler determination needs to be taken severely, pointing to latest Supreme Court docket rulings which have overturned longstanding precedents on abortion rights and affirmative motion in greater training.
