BOISE, ID – The Idaho House Education Committee on Friday voted to introduce a bill to collect the immigration statuses of students in public schools.

The bill would add immigration status and nationality to the demographic data collected by Idaho public schools, ranging from K-12 schools, higher education institutions and public career technical schools. It would require the data to be available on the state department of education’s website.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 ruled public schools cannot deny any student enrollment based on immigration status, but bill sponsor Rep. Steve Tanner, R-Nampa, said public schools face challenges to accommodate the needs of English language learners. The bill would address those challenges, and provide the state statistics needed to inform public policy, Tanner said. Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, is a cosponsor.

The Idaho State Board of Education already collects a variety of K-12 student demographic data ranging from age, gender, race and ethnicity and housing status, among other things. It also records whether a student is an immigrant. For those identified students, it records the date they began attending a U.S. school, their native language and the country of their birth.

This is the second time the bill sponsors introduced this bill. A similar bill was introduced on Feb. 21, but it died in committee, Boise State Public Radio reported.

The next step in the legislative process is for the bill to receive a hearing, which could take place in the coming days or weeks. It would have to pass the Idaho House and Senate in order to reach Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s desk where he can sign it into law, let it become law without a signature or veto it.

The motion to introduce the bill for a hearing passed in a 9-5 vote. The vote breakdown was the following:

Votes in favor:

• Rep. Douglas Pickett, R-Oakley
• Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood
• Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene
• Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls
• Rep. Tony Wisniewski, R-Post Falls
• Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton
• Rep. Kyle Harris, R-Lewiston
• Rep. Kent Marmon, R-Caldwell
• Rep. Steve Tanner, R-Nampa

Votes against:

• Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls
• Rep. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome
• Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint
• Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise
• Substitute for Rep. Monica Church, D-Boise

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.