An interim study raised a question the state cannot yet answer and revived discussion of a school-notification bill that failed in 2023.
OKLAHOMA CITY — When an officer approached Mikayla Woods at a small-town store to arrest her on outstanding warrants, her young daughter was beside her. Woods told lawmakers the officer let her finish shopping, call her mother and send the girl back to her grandmother with Woods’ boyfriend.
“He actually let them drive off before he searched me and put me in handcuffs,” Woods said.
Years later, Woods said, her daughter still remembers a kind officer and her mother leaving with him.
Her account was part of a Sept. 22 House interim study on what happens to children when a parent or caregiver is arrested. The discussion moved from individual officers’ decisions to a question Rep. Tim Turner, R-Kinta, said Oklahoma cannot answer: How many children are affected each year?
“We have zero data on how many children are affected yearly by this problem,” Turner told the committee.
Turner suggested adding a field to law enforcement reports to record when children are involved in an arrest. He said a count could help the state determine what support those children need. Annette Wisk Jacobi, executive director of the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, supported collecting the information. She also urged officers to ask about children who are elsewhere and may need someone to care for them after a parent is taken into custody.
A local example, and an earlier bill
Officials from Rogers County described a way to alert schools. Jon Sappington, a former undersheriff, said Claremore officers can mark a call “Handle With Care” when they believe a child’s school should be notified. An automated morning report then goes to school resource officers and counselors, giving them a chance to watch for a student who may need support.
Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said he would like a more dependable way to document what happens after such a notification. He also pointed to a limit of any school-based approach: “What happens in the summertime when school’s not in session?”
The committee also discussed a statewide Handle With Care bill that lawmakers passed in 2023. House Bill 2513 would have allowed law enforcement to notify a program when a child experienced a traumatic event, including a parent’s arrest. The program could then send the child’s school a brief alert asking staff to handle the student with care. The bill passed both chambers but received a pocket veto.
The local practice and the 2023 proposal differed in what information would be shared. Sappington said Claremore’s morning report includes the child’s name and the nature of the call. The bill generally would have barred details of the event from the initial notification to the program, except for an imminent safety threat. Schools would have received a general alert.
Turner suggested revisiting the measure and adding a way to count affected children. Criminal Judiciary Committee Chairman Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, favored a narrower bill focused on a few circumstances, along with law enforcement training.
“I think there needs to be some action taken now,” Worthen said. No legislation resulted from the interim study.
