A child abuse registry created in 2010 to help child care providers screen out potential employees with findings of abuse or neglect has glaring gaps that could leave many Oklahoma children at risk. That’s according to Sen. AJ Griffin, who requested an interim study to look at the issue. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Tuesday about the child abuse registry known as Joshua’s List, named for a two-year-old killed by a family child care home provider.

Nationwide, more than 70 percent of wrongful convictions in criminal cases were tied to misidentification by eyewitnesses. In Oklahoma, that’s the case in about 30 percent of such cases. On Monday, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the need for law enforcement to adopt proven methods aimed at improving the reliability of eyewitness identification. State Sen. David Holt requested the interim study.

The Senate Education Committee Wednesday held an interim study on child sexual abuse in Oklahoma’s schools.

“Creating a safe environment in our schools is a top priority,” said Sen. Kyle D. Loveless (R-Oklahoma City), who requested the study. “As the father of two daughters, I want to know they are safe and learning while at school-that’s why I will continue to work on this issue.”
Much of the study focused on preventing abusers from moving from district to district.

Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus chair, Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, issued the following statement Thursday on behalf of the caucus outlining recommendations for law enforcement across the state and calling for peaceful protests following Friday evening’s police shooting of Terence Crutcher.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Anastasia Pittman was recently elected to serve as the National Vice-Chair of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators (NCNASL) in Chicago, IL.

Senate Democratic Leader John Sparks, D-Norman, issued the following comments on a lawsuit filed Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to order the governor to return $140.8 million in “extra money” that was “found” by the governor’s fiscal staff back to the state agencies from where it was cut:

The leader of the Oklahoma Senate announced on Wednesday 36 requests for interim legislative studies. The study requests were approved by Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa.

The studies have been assigned to the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the subject matter contained within the request. The committee chairman will be responsible for scheduling committee meetings on the interim study requests.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Democratic Leader John Sparks (D-Norman) issued the following comments in response to the report that Governor Fallin is considering calling the Legislature into special session to use “extra money” to fund a pay raise for public school teachers:

“Once again, Governor Fallin and the Republican majority in the legislature are showing how bad they are at public finance and how good they are at election year political pandering – because that is all this proposal for a special session on teacher pay raises is.

Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman released the following statement on the passing of former Senator E. Melvin Porter, Oklahoma’s first African-American state senator.

Legislation that will save millions of dollars and give greater control to local school districts in evaluating teachers will take effect beginning July 1, 2016. House Bill 2957, by Rep. Michael Rogers, Vice Chair of the House Common Education Committee, and Sen. John Ford, Senate Education Chair, was approved during the just-ended 2016 legislative session. The measure makes changes to Oklahomas Teacher Leader Effectiveness Evaluation System (TLE).