House committee approves RS32405C1 to add immigration status and nationality to aggregate student demographics

The House Education Committee on a roll-call vote agreed to introduce RS32405C1, a request statute that would add immigration status and nationality to the aggregate demographic data collected and reported for kindergarten through grade 12 in Idaho public educational institutions.

Sponsor Representative Steve Tanner, R‑Nampa, told the committee the change aims to give policymakers better information to plan services for students who may need additional supports such as English-language instruction. "We need some statistics, we need some information," Tanner said, describing earlier requests for data and a concern that existing public reports do not show how many students in Idaho public schools fall into categories such as undocumented or refugee status.

Tanner cited two outside estimates to describe the scale of the issue: the University of Idaho McClure Center figure of roughly 35,000 undocumented residents (2021 data) and a broader count from usafacts.org that about 112,000 Idaho residents are foreign-born across categories including naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents. "We know there's a big increase but we don't know how many actually we have in our schools. So that's what we're after," Tanner said.

The RS changes several lines of current draft language: it replaces references to "grades 1 through 12" with "kindergarten through grade 12," limits the scope of the requirement to "Idaho public educational institutions or Idaho public school districts," and requests that the additional demographic fields be reported in aggregate to the superintendent of public instruction and posted on the superintendent's website. Tanner also noted student-record restrictions in Idaho Code 33-133 that require that released data be aggregate and that personally identifiable student information remain private.

Committee leadership clarified that the RS requests only aggregate reporting. Chairman Pickett said the committee had previously reviewed a similar draft and that the new version seeks to resolve confusion about intent and scope. There were no committee questions that changed the bill text during the meeting.

Representative Harris moved the motion to introduce RS32405C1. The committee recorded a roll call and the motion to introduce passed by a vote of 9 to 5. The committee record shows the RS will be introduced and scheduled for a future hearing where proponents and opponents can testify in more detail.

Next steps: RS32405C1 has been introduced by the committee and, if printed, would be available for public hearing and amendment. The proponents said the information would be limited to aggregate demographic counts in keeping with Idaho Code 33-133; the RS would add two demographic fields (immigration status and nationality) to the student record metadata that may be reported in aggregate.