StateImpact Oklahoma

Run. Hide. Fight. Those were the words that ended the first of several text updates from OU’s emergency alert system on the night of April 7.  The Norman Police Department had received calls that appeared to be coming from OU’s campus. The caller told police there was a shooting at the Bizzell Memorial Library and that one of the caller’s friends had been shot. And in secondary calls to Norma...

The state ranks 46th in the nation for nurses per capita, and of course, the pandemic has only made that worse.  But all along, one of the major contributing factors to that shortage has been nursing school. There are a finite number of slots offered, and Oklahoma hasn’t had enough. Why? It’s complicated.

Even though funding measures advocated for by 2018 Oklahoma Teacher Walkout participants were stymied largely by Republican lawmakers, Oklahoma’s GOP is now authoring record-level education funding measures that include teacher raises, along with a slew of labor rights bills for educators. But the funding bills are far from a done deal — in fact, due to a disagreement in how those bills should ope...

Oklahoma offers pregnant residents special Medicaid coverage. That coverage used to last only 60 days after delivery, but under a new policy, that coverage will run for a full year instead. StateImpact’s Logan Layden and Catherine Sweeney discuss how the policy will affect thousands of new parents in Oklahoma.

House Bill 2177  is making its way through the statehouse. It purports to ban gender-affirming care for children and teens in Oklahoma. Supporters say children and teens aren’t equipped to make life-altering health decisions for themselves. One provision says no health facility receiving state funds can administer gender-affirming care to anyone of any age. Another provision would ban insuran...

Recent pushes from the Oklahoma legislature to target queer issues in schools and medicine have mobilized some Oklahomans to fight back. The Transgender Action Choir is one group lifting their voices to speak up.

Biomarker testing is a tool that doctors use to get a clearer picture of a medical problem — often cancer. Providers and patients say it can be difficult to get insurance companies to cover it. Oklahoma lawmakers are working to change that. 

Voters are just days away from deciding whether Oklahoma will legalize recreational marijuana. But results of similar ballot initiatives in Arkansas and Missouri could help predict the fate of State Question 820. KOSU's Xcaret Nuñez reports for StateImpact Oklahoma.

At the end of January, Oklahoma's new Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, announced he would change course on a high profile debacle involving Secretary of Education and now State Superintendent Ryan Walters — and lots of federal money.  Due to the state’s handling of its previous round of funding, Oklahoma now has nearly $18 million of federal education funding sitting untouched — and time i...

During the pandemic, the federal government started giving extra help to families who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — often called SNAP or food stamps. Officials were trying to make sure families could still put food on the table during the sudden economic downturn. But when Congress  passed its big omnibus bill in December , they nixed the extra help, putting a sudden exp...

Karli Myers is a first-time parent and an English teacher at Sapulpa High School. And without any sick leave left to take, Myers had to return to her classroom the previous day, cutting short her time at home with Luke.  That’s because public schools in Oklahoma aren’t mandated by the state to offer paid maternity leave to school faculty and staff — even though three out of four teachers in O...

Oklahoma’s Medicaid program, SoonerCare, is on its way to profound change. StateImpact’s Catherine Sweeney talked with its director, Secretary of Health Kevin Corbett, this week about the transition to managed care.

As more news emerges about embezzlement schemes at Epic Charter Schools, it might be difficult to keep up with the saga. That’s why StateImpact’s Beth Wallis asked Oklahoman newspaper reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel to get us up-to-speed on the last decade of Epic’s scandals. Martinez-Keel covers education at The Oklahoman and has been with the publication for four years.

In 2013, Tulsans accounted for only about 13 percent of the state’s methamphetamine treatment admissions.  In 2020, that figure climbed to one-third of the state’s admissions . That year, local nonprofits, treatment centers, law enforcement and government officials announced a collaborative, community-based initiative to help Tulsans find access to recovery services.

Oklahoma’s teacher shortage led to a record-breaking 3,780 emergency teaching certifications issued in 2022. From 2001-2018, Oklahoma’s enrollment in university education programs dropped by 80%. As the state's schools struggle to fill classrooms with teachers holding standard teaching certificates, provisionally certified teachers have had to step in to fill the gap. But do students lose out when...

State data released this year showed half of the teens who participated in an annual survey checked yes on the traditional depression symptom of feeling so sad or hopeless for two weeks in a row that they lost interest in usual activities. It found that in 2021, nearly one in four respondents had contemplated suicide in the past year. Among girls, that rate was closer to one in three.

Billion-dollar lawsuits and prestige television shows have made the opioid epidemic impossible to overlook. But it is far from the only drug epidemic the country — and Oklahoma — are facing. Overdose deaths from opioids, including prescription drugs as well as illicit forms of fentanyl, have increased over the past few years, likely because of struggles amid the pandemic. But one drug in particula...

Heavy rains in May 2019 revealed major disparities in flood protections across Oklahoma. While residents in Tulsa benefitted from decades of flood preparations, smaller communities lack the infrastructure and resources to keep the waters at bay. In the second of a two-part series with OPMX’s Graycen Wheeler, StateImpact’s Beth Wallis reports on how one riverside community came together to take car...

As climate change continues to raise the stakes of severe flooding events, some Oklahoma communities are prepared to weather the storm, and some aren’t. During the extreme flooding of May 2019, communities were put to the test. In the first of a two-part series in partnership with StateImpact’s Beth Wallis, OPMX’s Graycen Wheeler reports on how two neighboring cities responded to disaster.

Nathalie Valero and Elodie Musungayi are Tulsa teenagers who spoke about how social media is amplifying youth voices and how it impacts mental health for them and their peers. KOSU reporter Kateleigh Mills went to Tulsa to speak with them.

Leading up to the midterms, throngs of teachers and education advocates rallied around democratic candidates for governor and superintendent. But after the ticket went to Gov. Kevin Stitt and Education Secretary Ryan Walters, some of those teachers are thinking about leaving the state altogether.  Jami Jackson-Cole is a fifth grade teacher at Duncan Public Schools and manages the Oklahoma Edv...

Unlike some other states, Oklahoma’s midterm election results are in the books. The results have big implications for education, health, and the environment in our state. Managing editor Logan Layden discussed what the outcome means with the StateImpact Oklahoma reporters. 

Workforce problems, federal regulations and an increase in demand are creating a shortage of ADD and ADHD medications. Local medical providers started seeing an issue this summer. There are ways around the shortage, but they involve jumping through hoops.

Four day school weeks have become more common across  Oklahoma over the last decade. Lawmakers have tried to limit the practice. But as StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports, the rural districts that use them are fighting to keep them.

The governor's race has had plenty of hyper-partisan debates, but one major issue falls away from party politics. Gov. Kevin Stitt wants to fundamentally alter the state's Medicaid program. His plan would bring in private-sector insurance companies to manage the no-cost health insurance that covers 1.3 million Oklahomans. The gubernatorial election will determine whether he gets to. Democratic cha...