I told someone the other day that this time of year is when I am most optimistic for our state to see better, but that I am also highly concerned about what direction Oklahoma will go through policy.

On Monday, Feb. 2, Oklahoma saw the Second Session of the 60th Oklahoma Legislature commence. Lawmakers convened to officially begin business for 2026 by conducting the “first reading” of bills by announcing the bill number associated with the filed legislation.

This term is spelled out in Oklahoma’s Constitution, requiring each bill to have three readings, with one only occurring every 24 hours. This is a protection for the people allowing them to mobilize should a bill be controversial, rallying support or opposition before reaching the desk of the governor.

“Readings” of a bill are called such because the bill’s title, number and content in earlier days were read aloud to the legislative body, a tradition originating before widespread literacy and the ability to photocopy bills. Now, a motion is submitted stating the bills are considered as read thanks to improvements in both those areas.

On Tuesday, legislators will hear the “second reading” of the bills filed, announcing to which committee bills are assigned for consideration. Once bills pass out of committee and go to a hearing in the full house of origin (House bills in the House of Representatives, Senate bills in the Senate), then they will reach the “third reading” and be up for passage by the entire membership of the body.

The process is then repeated in the opposite body. If agreement cannot be reached between the bodies, it goes to further negotiation in a conference committee later in the session. The bill will be considered on a “fourth reading,” and it cannot be amended but simply passed or sent back for further conference.

So, the quickest a bill can pass is five calendar days due to three readings with 24 hours in each of the two bodies, with the third reading in the first house overlapping with the first reading in the other. I will say that it rarely happens for something to pass that quickly.

In the coming weeks, I will outline the different issues which will highlight this session, including education policies to improve early learning skills, issues tied around the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which shifts cost burdens on many programs to the states, the likely reduction of expendable revenue as compared to last year’s amounts due to tax cuts and other economic issues, the increased costs facing several state agencies and the priority bills pursued by OICA.

I was pleased with several bills which were submitted that align with our “Children’s Legislative Agenda” as built by attendees to our annual Fall Forum conference and through the efforts of our board members to provide ideas for policymakers, lawmakers and state agencies, to improve conditions for the youth of Oklahoma. We have had our team going through the submissions by lawmakers and with those bills which carried over from the previous session, which is allowed only over a two-year period in the first and second sessions of each Legislature.

In total, there are more than 350 bills which have been submitted that we have on our tracking list, with almost that many carrying over from last year.

We hope you will follow this column and our weekly newsletter, which you can sign up for at www.oica. org to receive on Thursdays. OICA Policy Director Greg Sawyer writes a weekly update on many of the bills which we are following to allow our advocates to learn more and use as a tool to effectively engage in policies important to them.

Next week, I will cover events from our Kid Governor and 4-H Junior Governor program as we held their inaugurations following the governor’s speech and the adjournment of the Legislature on that first day.

— 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. The OICA’s mission statement is: “Creating awareness, taking action and changing policy to improve the health, safety and well-being of Oklahoma’s children.”