Three child advocacy bills for Oklahoma in 2025

Advocates from all over the state in all different sectors are going through the legislation filed for the 2025 session. The Oklahoma Institute of Child Advocacy is watching out for a handful of bills this year.

“With a record number of bills filed this year obviously you're going to see a lot of ideas that would impact children and families,” said Joe Dorman, CEO of OICA. “That's all we care about. It's not about politics; we want to make sure the best politics go forth that will help the most children.”

House Bill 2030

The bill states:

“The foster care maintenance payment for Resource Parents who are traditional foster parents shall be at least: 1. Twenty-two Dollars and seventy-two cents ($22.72) per day, or Six Hundred Eighty-one Dollars and sixty cents ($681.60) per month.”

“One bill that I'm extremely excited about is Nick Archer filed legislation to increase reimbursement rates for foster families,” said Dorman.

Dorman says it’s been years since that reimbursement raise was adjusted. The legislation increases the daily pay from the previous $17.

“With the cost of living going up it's really tough on those foster families to provide that benefit,” said Dorman. “Hopefully this will be the first step in trying to improve the conditions for taking care of those foster youth and hopefully lead to ways to keep those kids in those biological families, get those families the help they need.”

House Bill 2244

The bill states:

“On an annual basis, each school district shall report to the State Department of Education the following information: 1. The number of times corporal punishment was administered by district personnel; 2. A record of the grade, age, race, gender, and disability status of the student receiving corporal punishment; and 3. A record of the personnel administering the punishment, the date and time of the incident, and the personnel who witnessed the administration of corporal punishment. E. On an annual basis, the State Department of Education shall provide a compilation report on the administration of corporal punishment to the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.”

“The last survey done by the State Department of Education showed 63 school districts still apply corporal punishment for those kids who fall into some category of special needs,” said Dorman.

“If a school will keep a detailed record - that way the state department will know which schools are using corporal punishment and it provides honestly a safety net for the school so they can document why they used it,” said Dorman.

Senate Bill 364

This legislation states:

“SB 364 removes language allowing a parent or legal guardian to sign a waiver allowing school district personnel to administer corporal punishment on a student with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The measure prohibits school district personnel from using corporal punishment on any student identified with a disability.”

“We're seeing so many lawsuits that are happening right now from families who don't want corporal punishment used on the kids and sometimes the school will do it without the parent's permission,” said Dorman.

“We also hope that eventually corporal punishment will not be used in schools because it's been proven it's not effective,” said Dorman.