Each year, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) holds our Fall Forum to look at trends in child health, safety, and well-being.

We invite advocates from across the state to hear from experts about critical topics. The attendees then share thoughts and ideas regarding how to seek improvement, which is then adapted into the “Children’s Legislative Agenda” for the upcoming legislative session. This document is presented to state and federal lawmakers for their consideration. Through the years, many topics have moved forward and were enacted into law to improve conditions for youth.

One of the foremost indexes of child wellbeing is The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Report. This analysis uses 16 data points, four each in four categories: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family & Community. Published annually over the past 35 years, this highly respected and reliable report indicates children’s needs and status at national and state levels. Below are the four measurements within the four categories.

Economic well-being: Children in poverty, children whose parents lack secure employment, children living in households with a high housing cost burden, and teens not in school and not working.

Education: Young children (ages 3 and 4) not in school, fourth graders not proficient in reading, eighth graders not proficient in math, and high school students not graduating on time.

Health: Low birth-weight babies, children without health insurance, child and teen deaths per 100,000, and children and teens (ages 10 to 17) who are overweight or obese.

Family and community: Children in single-parent families, children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma, children living in high-poverty areas, and teen births per 1,000.

You can see the report at https://assets.aecf.org/m/ databook/2025-KCDB-profile-OK.pdf with a comparison of where our state ranked against the overall United States and also a comparison to previous years, which some areas did show improvement.

Our 2025 Fall Forum began on Monday with a virtual gathering of advocates, with speakers including Jill Mencke, the Oklahoma KIDS COUNT Director, discussing current state data points. Elizabeth Kaup with the Oklahoma Commission for Children and Youth updated attendees on preventable deaths of children and youth in Oklahoma. We also heard from Martin Munoz of Utah Voices for Children, who provided a better understanding of what other states are facing and policy changes they have sought.

Advocates submitted ideas for conversation which will be more deeply discussed at our in-person gathering in Oklahoma City on October 15 and 16. If you are interested in joining us, you can register at https://www.oica.org to attend the conference in-person or by tuning in virtually on Zoom.

We will hear from experts discussing domestic violence, child death trends, foster care concerns, custodial rights, and accessible and affordable insurance when we reconvene. We are especially thankful to hear from former Lieutenant Governor and Cameron University President Jari Askins as our keynote speaker at our awards luncheon on Wednesday.

As we prepared for this important Fall Forum, I was heartened to see lawmakers already looking to ideas for consideration in the upcoming legislative session. Speaker Kyle Hilbert brought forth a conversation on Facebook assessing how Mississippi has improved their fourth grade reading levels and expressed a desire for Oklahoma to possibly replicate some of those innovations. Thank you to Speaker Hilbert and those other lawmakers who propose legislation which benefits our youth.

I want to conclude this week by congratulating Lindel Fields on his appointment to fill the vacant position of Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I have known Superintendent Fields for years through his work in CareerTech. I look forward to seeing the positive changes he will bring forward for our system of education, which has already started under his watch.

– About OICA: The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy was established in 1983 by a group of citizens seeking to create a strong advocacy network that would provide a voice for the needs of children and youth in Oklahoma, particularly those in the state’s care and those growing up amid poverty, violence, abuse and neglect, disparities, or other situations that put their lives and future at risk. Our mission statement: “Creating awareness, taking action and changing policy to improve the health, safety, and well-being of Oklahoma’s children.”