'Culture war': OSDE rule prohibiting schools from changing student records will be decided by lawmakers
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - In October, Governor Kevin Stitt approved an emergency rule prohibiting school districts and sites from altering sex or gender designations on student records without authorization from the State Board of Education.
As of Monday afternoon, the rule is in effect with the Oklahoma State Department of Education but it's not law.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), it has received notice that some students changing their sex or gender with parental consent are also seeking to remove prior records that accurately reflect their sex or gender during prior years.
"The rule will provide districts with clear authority to protect their historical records," the agency wrote in a rule impact statement. "The rule change does not concern public health, safety, and environment. Instead, the agency anticipates passage of this emergency rule will avoid serious prejudice to the public interest in maintaining accurate government records. This rule is proposed to ensure that school records are not irreparably altered pending consideration of a permanent rule restricting changes to historical records."
OSDE doesn't anticipate any cost to the agency to implement and enforce as a result of the proposed permanent rule.
Additional record keeping, if any, will be performed by existing staff, according to OSDE.
"We're not going to do the transgender game of back and forth, back and forth," said State Superintendent Ryan Walters during the October Board of Education meeting. "We have two genders. Those are the genders that are set."
Moore Public Schools and Cushing Public Schools requested to alter students records in October, but the Board unanimously rejected both.
The proposed rule has since been open for written public comment. It closed at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
A public hearing to discuss the proposed rule took place Monday morning, but not one public commenter showed up to voice their opinion.
"Was this scheduled 48 hours in advance? I donated blood yesterday, but I didn't think I lost that much blood," one person on social media said Monday morning.
Another social media user added, "They didn't tell anyone about the meeting. That's why no one is there."
A hearing notice has been posted on the agency's website since mid-November.
The Monday meeting ended within 20 minutes.
The Board is still able to modify the rule, but it will ultimately be left up to lawmakers whether it's enacted or not.
"It has to go through the legislative process. That's the way it's supposed to be," said Representative Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman.
Because the rule is currently being enforced by the OSDE, Rep. Rosecrants said school districts could likely be fined if found guilty of altering student records.
"It's a lot of gray area. It's really hard to even explain to you and have the viewer understand it as well. It's one of those real dark kind of gray areas," he stated. "It's a lot of confusion, but really more than anything, it's more fear mongering from this administration and targeting of an extremely marginalized group of folks."
Rep. Rosecrants predicts this rule passing through both the House and the Senate during this upcoming legislative session which begins in February.
"Whatever the party in power wants the party in power is going to get," added Rep. Rosecrants. "What this is, is a slap in the face to parental rights. When you hear all the time, you know, 'Oh, we want to have the rights of the parents.' Well, you're kind of ignoring parents in this situation. It's ridiculous."
He called the rule nothing more than a "culture war."
Rep. Rosecrants told KFOR he could also see a rule like this ending up in the court system.
The next State Board of Education meeting will be Thursday at 1 p.m.