OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — A bill to create an entirely new state agency cleared the Oklahoma State Senate on Wednesday.
The bill took up nearly two hours on the Senate floor. Some of that time was due to disagreements about line of questioning from State Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee) about alleged medical kidnapping by OKDHS to SB1570’S author, State Sen. Paul Rosino (R-Oklahoma City).
Rosino’s bill would create a new state agency called the Department of Child Safety and Wellbeing.
“I would say that we are not 100% been laser focused on kids. And so, this agency will be 100% focused on that and all the issues that we have dealing with kids in the system and hoping to continue to protect them in a way that we can also hold one agency accountable instead of having a massive agency,” Rosino said.
Rosino says the bill is a work in progress. As the bill stands now, all powers, duties, and functions of the Child Welfare Services Division of the Department of Human Services, Office of Juvenile Affairs and Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth would go to the new agency on July 1 of 2027.
“We are not just doing this so fast that we lose kids in the system. The whole purpose of the long transition is to make sure the services we’re currently providing we can continue to provide and protect children while transitioning to this new system,” Rosino said.
Some lawmakers expressed their support of the legislation.
“There is a big problem with DHS,” State Sen. Dana Prieto (R-Tulsa) said. “I have literally had hundreds and hundreds of calls and emails about the problems with DHS. However, I believe that this is a stab by the author at trying to fix some of these problems.”
Sen. Jett said he filed eight bills that he feels would have addressed abuse within DHS, but he says none of them were heard.
“The Department of Child Safety and Wellbeing has a lot of nice sounding names. But at the end of the day, as I’m reviewing it, it is expanding government to a certain extent, creating a new department, adding additional board and I see no meaningful reform other than simply moving people around from this department to that department to this department,” Jett said.
The bill passed the Senate in a 42 to 1 vote. Jett was the only Senator to vote no.
The bill now heads to the House for consideration.
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