StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma continues to rank top three in the nation for Hepatitis C deaths, but health officials are hopeful recent policy changes will help reverse the trend. Hepatitis C — a viral liver infection — is a problem nationwide. It’s the most prominent chronic blood-borne infection and leading cause of liver transplants. It can cause many complications, including cancer. 

The state partnered with substance abuse treatment providers to eliminate a counter productive wait time people struggling with addiction had to bear to get into treatment. Providers say the change is giving people a better chance to live.

As the academic year winds down, schools are already looking toward the next one. It’s bound to be more normal. But as StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports there’s also bound to be thousands of new teachers in Oklahoma’s classrooms.

Oklahoma has administered nearly 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Like all other states, it has done so free of charge to residents. That is possible largely because thousands of volunteers pitched into the effort.

A nonprofit helped women in two state prisons connect with strangers during the coronavirus pandemic. The women recounted their struggles and offered advice.

StateImpact’s Robby Korth didn’t get a haircut for over a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. But, more than two weeks after getting fully vaccinated, he takes us inside Carwin's Shave Shop for his much needed trim.

Attending school remotely has been an inconvenience for students and parents, and a major burden for many. For children experiencing homelessness, it’s all but impossible. 25-thousand Oklahoma children didn’t have a permanent home - before the pandemic. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports how the state’s only school tailored specifically for homeless students is handling the crisis.

Over half of Oklahoma’s state prisoners are at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus. Prisoner advocates say incarcerated people needed access sooner than the state authorized.

The people who are willing and able to travel out to mass vaccinations sites have already done it. The vaccine program is entering a new chapter: reaching Oklahomans who are either vaccine hesitant or facing barriers.

A lawsuit settlement between Oklahoma’s State Board of Education and The Oklahoma Public Charter School Association will greatly change the way public schools are funded. StateImpact’s Robby Korth spoke to Chris Brewster, President of the charter school organization and superintendent of Santa Fe South in Oklahoma City about the genesis of the lawsuit and school funding.

The two companies surpassed a year of negotiations and never reached an agreement. Come July, the two could be out of network.

Spring assessment tests are an annual spring tradition in Oklahoma. But this year, they'll look quite a bit different. StateImpact's Robby Korth goes to Calumet to see how a school that normally thrives is prepping.

The proposed abortion policies don’t vary much from past versions, but they could have a better shot at implementation because of shifts on the U.S. and Oklahoma supreme courts.

In part two of a story about what in-person school looks like in Oklahoma, StateImpact’s Robby Korth takes us to Hillcrest Elementary School in El Reno. The district has gone to great lengths to make in-person schooling work. This story was produced by KOSU’s Kateleigh Mills.

The vast majority of Oklahoma students are attending school in person. But what does that look like? StateImpact’s Robby Korth visited El Reno High School to find out.

Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform’s main goal this session is to bring Oklahoma’s prison sentences more in line with the national average.

SoonerSelect — otherwise known as managed care — will shift $2 billion in Medicaid funding to four private health insurance companies, tasking them with coordinating care for about 700,000 Oklahomans. Opponents are concerned the program was designed hastily, that it will reduce health access for low-income Oklahomans instead of improving it, that the $2 billion in contracts faced no legislative ov...

In Kevin Stitt’s State of the State Address, the governor brought a new definition for the term “ghost students” to the mainstream. StateImpact’s Robby Korth and The Oklahoman's Nuria Martinez-Keel explain Stitt’s new definition and its effects on education funding policy.

The Tulsa Race Massacre was famously forgotten in Oklahoma history classes for decades. But as the 100 year anniversary of the tragedy approaches, StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports keeping that memory alive is as important as ever in the state’s schools.

The state Legislature’s session was badly disrupted last year by the pandemic . It’s back starting Monday, and faces a long list of pressing issues and unfinished work from 2020. StateImpact health reporter Chatherine Sweeney, education reporter Robby Korth, and criminal justice reporter Quinton Chandler met with Republican Oklahoma Senate President Pro Temp Greg Treat to talk about his priorities...

Federal prisoners threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic complain they and other prisoners weren’t quarantined after having contact with infected people. They also say staff often don’t wear masks.

Immersion learning works like this: students come to school and they learn in two languages, usually English and something else. But COVID-19 has made teaching at these schools difficult. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports with Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton.

Deputy Commissioner of Health Keith Reed says it allows for quicker vaccinations, which fights community transmission and paves the way for larger vaccine supply shipments.

Throughout the pandemic, long-term care facilities have had to implement lockdowns. For Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, the isolation used to protect their physical health can further damage their brain health.

Black Lives Matter protesters urged Oklahomans to go to the polls after Minnesota police killed George Floyd. Did the energy felt in street protests translate into Oklahomans' polling places?