Last week, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) announced our 2024 Children’s Legislators of the Year. The work of Sens. Brenda Stanley, Jo Anna Dossett, and Dave Rader, along with Reps. Forrest Bennett, Jeff Boatman, and John Talley did not go unnoticed, and we certainly appreciate their work. OICA also recognizes retiring lawmakers who have been champions for children. Our 2024 Senate recognitions are Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-OKC; Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd, D-OKC; and Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa. Each has reached their constitutional limit of service in the Legislature, and each has done tremendous work with youth issues.

House retirees leaving due to term limits or by choice we selected for honors are Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon; Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore; and Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan. Each has improved opportunities for children through their lawmaking efforts, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for these public servants.

We would also like to send well-wishes to Speaker Charles McCall and House Floor Leader Jon Echols as they term out, each setting records for length of service in those leadership positions. On a personal note, I also want to send Sen. George Young best wishes; he is not only a lawmaker and my Leadership Oklahoma classmate, but he, as a pastor, has been a friend who I can call when needing an uplifting conversation.

Finally, a very special thanks goes to Sen. Roger Thompson for an exemplary career. Senator Thompson just announced his early retirement from the Senate, effective Nov. 1. As the former chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he helped countless families across the state with support of the Double Up Oklahoma program, a program allowing struggling families to better afford fresh fruits and vegetables purchased at farmers markets and grocers. He also spearheaded significant funds for youth mental health treatment. These are but two of the many initiatives Senator Thompson helped to make reality, and we wish him well.

In addition, OICA has compiled a “report card” for the work done by lawmakers this past session. We annually score each state senator and representative for their votes on legislation. This year, our board of directors chose to deduct points for negative votes and give no credit for absences. In the past, we simply did not give points to those who voted in a way we felt was negative, and we also did not penalize lawmakers for missing votes. Our board decided to change that policy due to the many votes which were missed.

We did provide “extra credit” for lawmakers who file child-friendly bills, even if the legislation was not considered. For members in leadership positions, we also estimated the time in which they would be called away for their work and added extra points due to their inability to cast votes.

In one instance, Rep. Preston Stinson was caring for his child who is facing a severe health issue. As such, we chose not to deduct points for his absences based upon that understandable time away. OICA has promoted increased parental leave time as a policy, so we felt this was within that scope. We wish his son a very speedy recovery.

We want to thank each lawmaker for their work this session, but especially those who ranked highly on our report card. The Children’s Legislative Scorecard will be available by Wednesday (June 19) on our website at https://www.oica.org/advocacy-resources. Be sure to see who the top-scoring lawmakers are and if your representative or senator is one.

- 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.