Crowd protests the proposal outside the Oklahoma State Department of EducationOKLAHOMA CITY — A proposed rule that would require schools to ask for proof of U.S. citizenship during enrollment unanimously passed the Oklahoma State Board of Education on Tuesday, sending the highly controversial proposal to the state Legislature.Both the Oklahoma House and Senate have the choice of approving it or allowing Gov. Kevin Stitt to decide during the 2025 legislative session, which begins Feb. 3. The administrative rule would carry the force of law, if enacted.The regulation is intended to collect citizenship information of both students and their parents, state Superintendent Ryan Walters said after the meeting. Walters leads the Oklahoma State Department of Education, which proposed the rule, and the state board that approved it.Undocumented children still would be allowed to attend public schools, but districts would have to report to the state Education Department the number of students they enrolled whose families were unable to verify citizenship or legal residency.Walters said the Education Department would share families’ immigration status with the federal government, if the agency is asked to provide it. He said Friday he would support immigration enforcement raids in schools, should President Donald Trump’s administration wish to carry them out.The federal government forbids schools from asking about a student’s immigration status during enrollment. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled undocumented children cannot be denied a free, public education.The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, though, said there is no lawful impediment to schools asking for proof of citizenship. Attorney General Gentner Drummond believes “state services should only be provided to legal residents of our state and nation,” spokesperson Phil Bacharach said.A spokesperson for the Governor’s Office, Meyer Siegfried, said Friday that Stitt supports strong enforcement of immigration laws and “believes we have a responsibility to know who is in our state and how taxpayer dollars are being spent.”A large crowd of students and concerned Oklahomans gathered outside the Education Department building Tuesday to protest citizenship checks in schools.Students in the crowd carried signs and Mexican flags and called the rule hurtful and wrong.High school student Thomas Suarez criticized it directly to Walters and the board during the public comment portion of the meeting.“The idea that a child wanting to pursue an education must be profiled before learning is distasteful,” Suarez said. “It is sad that you, Mr. Walters, stand here pretending to care about the students while at ...