OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislative leaders set the deadline for requesting interim studies as Friday, June 24. They allow lawmakers and advocates to discuss ideas that might be considered in future bills or possibly look at something which might be under implementation. We have passed many ideas along to members of the Legislature.

Lawmakers often file these studies to look at issues at the request of constituents, the people who live in the area who can vote for that official.

Ideas from citizens can make a difference. OICA was founded almost 40 years ago due to the idea of advocates who recognized the need for a watchdog organization to monitor policies that impact the youth of our state. Following the “Terry D” lawsuit, the action which broke the Department of Human Services into various entities and set up internal government oversight, the need for an outside-of-government watchdog on children’s issues was clear.

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) has taken that mission seriously ever since, encouraging advocates to get involved and empowering other youth nonprofits to engage with their collective voices.

The Primary Elections will be next Tuesday, June 28 across the state. Candidates are vying for their party’s nomination during these early elections.

We have several races with both Republicans and Democrats, so every registered voter in Oklahoma will have choices to make.

If you are interested in which candidates filled out our candidate survey on children’s policy, you can go to https://www.oica.org to see responses from those who were willing to answer the questions we asked about how they would enact policy to help children. You can also go to our website to see our report card on the legislators who voted on youth issues over the past session.

Making an informed decision with your ballot is critical if we are going to see better from our elected officials. We hope this information – presented in a non-partisan, apolitical manner – will help you decide for whom you wish to vote.

NOTE: Joe Dorman, a former state representative from Rush Springs, serves as executive officer for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.