Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/series/kids-in-peril/)
Since 2012, the number of child care facilities has dropped by nearly one-quarter, putting parents in a pinch as they try to find places to take their kids. Industry representatives blame excessive regulation and subsidy income limits that exclude many parents who still struggle with the expense.
Wanting to reduce the bouncing of foster children from home to home, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services is placing more kids immediately in homes of relatives, friends and others who never asked to be foster parents. The placements happen fast, which means there are risks.
Forty years after Congress passed landmark legislation to prevent employers from discriminating on the basis of pregnancy or childbirth, complaints in Oklahoma of such treatment continue.
Allegations of pregnancy discrimination involve a variety of jobs and behaviors. Here are some examples of Oklahoma cases filed in federal court or with the EEOC offices.
Oklahoma students lost ground in reading proficiency in the past two years, erasing gains they had made in 2015, according to the newly released “Nation’s Report Card”. The decline could raise questions about the efficacy of the state’s third-grade retention law.
Top officials from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services talk about challenges and progress in the state’s foster-care and child-welfare programs during an “Oklahoma Watch-Out” public forum.
In response to an Oklahoma Watch story, the largest granter of tax-credit scholarships has told at least 60 private schools to comply with a state law that prohibits discriminating against applicants with disabilities to remain in the program. But that doesn’t necessarily mean schools will change their admission practices.
Under state law, private schools in Oklahoma that offer tax-credit tuition scholarships must not discriminate in admissions against students with disabilities. But Oklahoma Watch found that most schools exclude such students from discrimination policies.
The state’s Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship program prohibits participating schools from discriminating against students with disabilities, but some schools say they don’t have the capacity to educate these students. Here are some schools’ positions.
A fourth of high schools across the state have eliminated world language classes over a decade, erasing the chances for thousands of students to acquire skills that could better prepare them for college and the job market.