Oklahoma State Department of Education regulations that ban pornographic materials in public-school libraries and spell out parental rights in schools have received approval from Oklahoma lawmakers.

Lawmakers’ decision to approve the rules is a victory for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who championed adoption of the new regulations.

In March, at Walters’ urging, members of the State Board of Education voted to adopt new regulations to implement various state laws approved by the Oklahoma Legislature.

One set of regulations enforced provisions of Oklahoma’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The associated OSDE regulations state, “Parents’ rights include the right to direct the education of their minor children, to object to public schools imposing unwanted instruction on questions of sex, morality, or religion; and additional rights applicable to minor children within public schools of this state.”

The regulations also state that the parental right “to inspect classroom materials shall extend to any Sex or Sexuality education material” and parents may withdraw their child from those lessons.

In addition, the regulations say, “No School district, and no employee of the district or its schools, shall encourage, coerce, or attempt to encourage or coerce a minor child to withhold information from the child’s Parent(s) or guardian(s).” School officials are also required to disclose to a child’s parents “any information” regarding “material changes reasonably expected to be important to parents regarding their child’s health, social, or psychological development, including Identity information.”

Another set of rules approved by the board dealt with school library materials.

Those regulations require each Oklahoma school district to report annually to the Oklahoma State Department of Education a complete listing of all library books, and state that no school library “shall have available to minor students any Pornographic materials or Sexualized content.”

Schools would be required to have a written policy for reviewing the educational suitability and age-appropriate nature of any material in a library and for receiving and responding to complaints.

The regulations define “pornographic” to mean “depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct which are patently offensive as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, considering the youngest age of students with access to the material,” and materials that “taken as a whole, have as the dominant theme an appeal to prurient interest in sex.” The regulations also apply to “sexualized content” that is “not strictly Pornographic but otherwise contains excessive sexual material in light of the youngest age of students with access to said material.”

School districts that fail to comply with the regulations could have their accreditation downgraded.

The regulations were subject to legislative review and potential rejection by a vote of both chambers.

House Joint Resolution 1045 and Senate Joint Resolution 22 both contain language declaring, “All proposed permanent rules of Oklahoma state agencies filed on or before April 1, 2023, are hereby approved” aside from those specifically identified for rejection within each piece of legislation.

Neither bill included the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s library and parents’ rights rules among the rules being rejected.

Democrats in both chambers argued that an April 4, 2023 opinion by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond—issued in response to a question from state Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore—had declared the education regulations to be illegal.

Drummond’s opinion noted that any agency rule “promulgated relying only on the general ‘powers and duties’ within section 3-104 (of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes) is invalid and may not be enforced by the State Department of Education or the Board.”

“Our current attorney general concluded, in his opinion, that the State Department of Education rules are not authorized by statute and would likely not be enforceable,” said state Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman.

“Why have we receded when the top lawyers in this state are saying that this statute that they based it on is too broad?” said state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa.

But state Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, an Altus Republican who is chair of the House Administrative Rules Committee, said that view misunderstands the opinion’s content.

“I did get the attorney general opinion as well, and he did not say that these rules were invalidated,” Kendrix said, adding that the opinion merely offered general guidance by saying that rules must be tied to specific law.

Officials with the Oklahoma State Department of Education have said the rules are based not only on the agency’s general oversight power, but also are tied to specific state laws that require agency enforcement.

Kendrix also said Drummond has communicated with lawmakers to say his opinion did not address the library porn or parents’ rights regulations.

“I have since that time had the attorney general’s office in my office that have told me, ‘We did not address any specific rules,’” Kendrix said.

State Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, an Adair Republican who chairs the Senate Administrative Rules Committee, similarly noted it appears that Drummond’s opinion did not address any specific school regulations.

“There are many of us in the Senate who believe that the attorney general is incorrect in that opinion, and also looking at the attorney general, what he has written on this, I think there’s some question as to the extent that this would actually apply to these rules,” Bergstrom said.

McBride filed an amendment to add Oklahoma State Department of Education regulations to the list of those rejected by lawmakers but withdrew it on the House floor.

HJR 1045 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 64-33 vote. SJR 22 passed the Oklahoma Senate on a 35-9 vote. Each measure now proceeds to the opposite chamber for consideration.