Month: November 2023

If you saw this information from your schools newsletter would this capture your attention or would it properly inform you that this survey could reveal intimate details of your personal family life? (Source: Norman Public Schools had this information included at the bottom of their newsletter. Many parents did not see this notice and many are upset that they were not properly informed about opt out options).

We reported on this two years ago and now we are seeing the real world consequences! In 2021, Oklahoma Representatives Vancuren (Owasso), Davis (Broken Arrow) and Waldron (Tulsa) of the House and Haste (Broken Arrow) of the Senate worked to pass a law that mandates most public schools provide students with a survey regarding a variety of issues with a focus on alcohol, tobacco, other drug use, mental health, academic failure, and violence. This survey is being administered to public school children by the OK Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the name of federal funding to our children. Even though students are allowed to opt-out, many students have felt pressured and parents are unaware that it is even going on. We need to fix this and need your help! 

Check out the surveys for yourself here. Would you feel comfortable with your 6th grader filling out this survey or your 8th, 10th, and 12th grader filling out this survey without your knowledge?

If this survey is concerning to you please contact your schools principal and ask about the opt out waiver.

Recently, OKHPR was made aware that the former link to find vaccine exemptions on the State Department of Health website was now gone. We made sure a copy was available on our website and then got to work to find out what was going on.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health has made a number of changes to the vaccine exemption form. The biggest change is that now, instead of a parent turning in the exemption form into their school and then the school sending this form to the State Department of Health, parents are being told to send this form themselves to the State Department of Health who will then send it to the schools after it has been approved or denied.

Above is a copy of the 2nd page of the exemption form from 2016. To view page one full screen, please click here. to view page two full screen, please click here.

Above is a copy of the 2nd page of the newly updated 2023 exemption form. To view this form full screen, please click here.

Additionally, we recently found out that the Immunization Department had a backlog of exemptions and as a result one school in eastern Oklahoma did not get approval for two students so they DID NOT allow those students to attend and thus the students were suspended due to excessive absences. We are calling on Governor Stitt, who is head of this agency and the Oklahoma Legislature to take action on the exemption process which has been a part of state law since 1970.

Contact Governor Stitt and your State Legislators to ensure they are aware of these problems! Ask Governor Stitt and your State Legislator to go back to the more streamlined process of parents turning in the exemption to schools, and school submitting it to the Oklahoma Department of Health and allow students to attend school while awaiting “approval”.

OKHPR has already begun working on legislation ideas to streamline this process and make it nondiscriminatory. Make sure you are paying attention to future OKHPR newsletters and are signed up to receive OKHPR text alerts by texting #S(your district number) to 405-251-8915. For example, if you live in senate district 3 you would text #S3.