At 3 a.m., I joined a group of more than 100 volunteers at the Homeless Alliance for one final round of instructions. Then, groups gathered drawstring bags full of supplies and started splitting up to canvas as much of Oklahoma City’s 600 square miles as possible.

The city was still dark, illuminated only by streetlights, city signs and the glow of our flashlights.

May Anchondo, the leader of my seven-person volunteer team and Director of Support Services at the Homeless Alliance, guided us through our assigned locations in southeast Oklahoma City.

“We have different sites that the community identifies, and so we’re walking towards a campsite so that we can see if anyone who might be experiencing homelessness is willing to take a survey with us,” Anchondo said.

She and the other members of my group were bundled up in multiple jackets, attempting to ward off below-freezing temperatures.

Throughout the morning, we approached various shelters and encampments, talking to whoever was willing. We surveyed about a dozen individuals, gathering demographic data and asking questions about their experiences.

People shared stories of domestic abuse, mental health struggles, job loss after the pandemic and even “not wanting to be a burden” as reasons that led to their homelessness.

The results from the surveys are added to data from local homeless shelters and transitional housing programs to provide a “snapshot” of what homelessness looks like on a given night in Oklahoma City.

To receive homeless assistance grants, the results have to be reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development every two years. Oklahoma City has been conducting the count annually since 2003.

But the count is about more than just numbers — it’s also a pathway for outreach. We handed out supplies like toothbrushes, hand warmers, gloves, snacks and bus passes to everyone we met.

Volunteers also asked people they encountered whether they needed information about nearby shelters or support services.

“The Point in Time count is really a look at the human aspect of homelessness,” said Erika Warren, who helped organize this year’s effort. “It’s about understanding what our neighbors are experiencing and how we can show up for them.”

Warren works with the city-led Key to Home initiative. Made up of more than 50 organizations, Key To Home is Oklahoma City’s way of streamlining and connecting various efforts to end homelessness.

Last year, the Point In Time count reported a total of 1,838 people, an increase from the previous year’s 1,436.

According to Warren, this year’s count is expected to be higher, reflecting the ongoing challenges posed by a lack of affordable housing. She said a significant drop won’t be seen until the city’s housing stock increases.

In the meantime, there are still a lot of people who resort to living outside.

Anchondo from the Homeless Alliance says the count helps her imagine what that must be like.

“It also just really brings perspective on why we do what we do, right? Cause it’s cold out there … Even though I work with folks who are experiencing homelessness, and families, and youth, doing Point In Time is a really good opportunity to also just really solidify why the work that we do is really needed in our community.”

During the count, my group came across three people in their early twenties. Last year, 19 of the people counted living outside were between the ages of 18 and 24.

It’s impossible to say whether my group’s numbers translate into any broader trends, but they will contribute to the broader picture of what homelessness looks like in Oklahoma City.

Homelessness is complex, Anchondo says, and solutions the city pursues must serve the people going through it.

This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.

Families enrolling children in Oklahoma public schools will have to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship under new rules approved Tuesday by the state’s education board. 

The proposed regulation, which must be approved by the governor and the Legislature, would require school districts to track the number of students who cannot verify their immigration status and report those figures to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that; it is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” Ryan Walters, the state superintendent, said at the Tuesday meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Outside the building in Oklahoma City, dozens of students protested Walters’ immigration policies and called to keep deportation agents off school campuses.

Walters — who gained a reputation in office for focusing on culture war issues and inviting right-wing influencers into state government — met resistance last year when he said he intended to ask school districts to help his office calculate the cost of illegal immigration on the public education system. 

A dozen districts told NBC News in August that they would not check the immigration status of their students, with many citing a desire not to violate Supreme Court precedent, nor discourage foreign-born families from enrolling children in school.

Walters said Tuesday that Oklahoma spent $474 million to educate children of undocumented immigrants under the Biden administration. That figure came from an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform — a right-wing nonprofit founded by the late activist John Tanton, who promoted eugenics and opposed nonwhite migration to the U.S. — and was based on an estimate the group did using census data from 2020.

“You have to have the data around where your kids are coming from,” Walters said at the state board meeting. “We will make sure that President Trump and his administration have this information.”

Melissa Lujan, an immigrant rights attorney in Oklahoma City, said she has received at least six calls from clients this week asking what documentation they need to show at their children’s schools — under the mistaken assumption that the rules are already in effect, and in light of Walters’ statement that he would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to collect children from public schools for deportation.

“They’re freaking out,” Lujan said. 

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that the government cannot prevent children of undocumented immigrants from attending public school. The vote was 5-4, but the dissent did not advocate for excluding undocumented immigrant children from public schools.

A decade ago, federal courts struck down a similar Alabama law to collect the immigration status of school children. 

Kit Johnson, a University of Oklahoma law professor who specializes in immigration law, predicts that the rules advanced by Walters will meet a similar fate when they are inevitably challenged in court.

“This one will be found unconstitutional,” Johnson said. “Even with Walters saying, ‘Oh, we’re just data collecting’ — if it’s going to chill the opportunity for children to have an equal access to education, it is not allowed.” 

Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, said the group is considering litigation to block the rules if the governor and Legislature approve them, but that doesn’t provide a lot of comfort in the near term for immigrant families.

“Just the threat of this causes harm, and we believe that is the intention — to scare students from going to school,” she said.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentry Drummond “believes it is lawful to request such documentation” of a child’s immigration status, because the rule stipulates “failure to produce the material does not preclude enrollment,” a spokesman for his office said Tuesday.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and Republican legislative leaders did not respond to requests for comment on the immigration rules.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education is holding a board meeting Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, January 28th 2025, 8:43 am

By:

David Prock

OKLAHOMA CITY –

The Oklahoma State Department of Education is holding a board meeting Tuesday morning.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters will lead the meeting by discussing deregulation applications, civic engagement programs, and more.

Griffin Media is streaming the meeting at NewsOn6.com and on YouTube.

The full agenda for the meeting can be read below: