At last week’s Fall Legislative Forum organized by the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, a panel of state agency directors discussed some of the accomplishments and continuing challenges facing Oklahoma government. Taking part in the panel were leaders from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Department of Human Services, the Office of Juvenile Affairs, the Health Department, and the Health Care Authority. The panelists discussed several ways we have made progress in Oklahoma despite tough budget times.

Commissioner Terri White, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

White said that preventing addiction is the biggest public health problem facing Oklahoma. She expressed concern that the current discussion on allowing sale of strong beer and wine in grocery stores has concentrated on economic development issues without taking into account increased risk of underage access to alcohol.

“The younger someone uses alcohol, the more likely it is they’ll use as adults,” White said.

Over the course of the budget crisis, she said $30 million had been cut from the mental health budget, 90 percent of which goes directly to care providers. On the positive side, she praised new investments of $3 million for a Smart on Crime initiative and $2 milion to Systems of Care, which coordinates services between agencies for children with the highest needs.

“If we don’t make sure the brain health of our children is our highest priority, we’re going to be paying for those problems over and over with more tax dollars than we can afford to come up with,” White said. Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy is hosting a Legislative Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Participants at this year’s Forum will hear a state budget overview from OK Policy Director David Blatt and listen to a panel of state agency directors as they explain how recent budget cuts impact children. The state agency panel includes: Mike Fogarty with the Health Care Authority; Terri White with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; Howard Hendrick with Department of Human Services, Gene Christian with the Office of Juvenile Affairs and Toni Frioux of the State Department of Health.

Forum workshops will focus on five policy priorities for Oklahoma’s children selected by an online vote earlier this year: child health; child safety; mental health; early care and education; and maternal and infant health. Participants will work in breakout sessions on the five issues, culminating in a policy/strategy vote. The forum will also include a grassroots coalition training session.

The keynote speaker is Michelle Aguilar, winner of season six’s “Biggest Loser” competition.  Her inspirational speech will motivate others to find their own voice and inner-strength as child advocates, community members and business leaders committed to OICA’s mission in providing strong voices for Oklahoma’s children.

Go to http://oica.org/fall-forum to register and see the full agenda.

Oklahoma has the 6th highest infant mortality rate and 2nd highest black infant mortality rate in the country.  Among black babies, the infant mortality rate in Oklahoma today is comparable to the 1970s national average for all races.  This fantastic short film, Reducing Infant Mortality, by independent filmmaker Debby Takikawa explores the underlying and immediate causes of infant death.  The film interviews researchers, maternal health care providers, and public policy experts who delve into the complicated aspects of poverty, pregnancy and neonatal care in the age of modern medicine.

Visit www.reducinginfantmortality.com to learn more about the film and about strategies for reducing infant death.  Visit the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy online to learn about initiatives in the state that promote healthy mothers and babies.

View other clips from OKPolicy’s “Watch This’ video series:

• Panic Nation film trailer
• What is Sharia Law?
  

Last week, the Department of Human Services announced new co-payment and eligibility rules for the child care subsidy program, which we discussed in this post. By lowering the eligibility threshold for subsidies, the new rules will worsen the “cliff effect” whereby workers with the opportunity to move up the income ladder are penalized by losing work support benefits. Here we rerun a blog post on this subject that first appeared in June 2009; we have also discussed how health care reform promises to significantly improve the situation.

In recent years, whenever I’ve participated in forums on poverty and barriers to self-sufficiency, the single barrier raised most often and most fervently by those who work with low-income individuals and by low-income individuals themselves is the “cliff effect”. A 2007 report prepared for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and the Women and Family action Network Coalition defined the cliff effect as follows:

Eligibility for work support benefits is typically based on income, so as their earnings increase, families lose eligibility for supports. A benefit cliff occurs when just a small increase in income leads to the complete termination of a benefit. The result is that parents can work and earn more, while their families end up worse off than they were before. Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services this week approved changes to the state’s child care subsidy program that  will increase hardships for struggling low-income working families, threaten access to quality child care, and harm child care providers who serve low-income children. [UPDATE: In late July, the Commission decided to defer a vote on these changes until November]

DHS’ actions were precipitated by budget shortfalls for the upcoming year exceeding $30 million. The Legislature reduced state appropriations to DHS  for FY ’12 by a modest $6.0 million, or 1.1 percent, compared to FY ’11. However, the agency also faces the loss of one-time funding in this year’s budget, expected increases in program utilization, and higher employee benefit costs. To balance its budget, DHS proposed a series of  measures, which included voluntary buyouts of 231 positions, mostly within its field operations division for children and family services, and cuts in contracts for various social services. Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy’s annual Fall Children’s Legislative Forum will be held Tuesday, October 12th and Wednesday, October 13th.  The theme this year is “Protect Kids”, and the main goal of the event will be to create consensus around a set of core principles to guide decision-making during these continuing tough budget times.

The main event will be held on Wednesday,  October 13th at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.  Child advocates will meet for a day-long session to discuss the recent  severe budget cuts and their impact on critical services for children.  In addition to briefings by state leaders and policy experts (including yours truly), participants will develop guiding principles that policymakers can use to measure how legislation might affect Oklahoma’s children. Registration for the Forum is $75; you can register online here.

The Children’s Legislative Forum will be preceded by two events on Tuesday, October 12th:

• In the afternoon (time and location TBA), OICA will host offer a briefing on the 2010 Kids Count databook providing the latest data on child well-being in Oklahoma.  This event will be free but pre-registration is required.
• At 7:00 p.m., OICA will co-host a debate featuring the State Schools Superintendent candidates along with the UCO College of Education and Professional Studies, the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral Association, and the Oklahoma Afterschool Network.   The program will be held at UCO; room to be announced.  Free of charge.

Anyone who wants to better understand the challenges facing Oklahoma children and families and make a difference in shaping future policy decisions should be sure to attend the Fall Forum.

In recent years, whenever I’ve participated in forums on poverty and barriers to self-sufficiency, the single barrier raised most often and most fervently by those who work with low-income individuals and by low-income individuals themselves is the “cliff effect”. A 2007 report prepared for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and the Women and Family action Network Coalition defined the cliff effect as follows:

Eligibility for work support benefits is typically based on income, so as their earnings increase, families lose eligibility for supports. A benefit cliff occurs when just a small increase in income leads to the complete termination of a benefit. The result is that parents can work and earn more, while their families end up worse off than they were before.

The cliff effect is most dramatic for Medicaid health insurance coverage, which tends to be an all-or-nothing benefit. Children in Oklahoma are eligible for Medicaid up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, while adults lose eligibility when they make less than 50 percent of the poverty level. Other work support programs, including the earned income tax credit, the food stamp program, and child care subsidies, minimize the cliff effect by phasing out the amount of benefits at higher incomes, or in the case of child care subsidies, requiring higher co-payments. The cumulative effect, however, is that for most low-income workers who are attempting to move up the income ladder, additional earnings can be largely or fully offset by higher taxes and the loss of benefits. At a certain threshold, workers find themselves in a situation where the rational response to an offer of a raise or a better job is to respond, “Sorry, but I just can’t afford it.”

Read the rest of this entry »