Protecting Oklahoma's Children
What began as the 2025 Year of the Child is now a standing commitment — the protection of children as a permanent measure of the Association's work, not a single year on the calendar.
In 2025, Oklahoma's district attorneys declared the Year of the Child — out of their own work and their concern for the state's children — organizing the Association's work around a single conviction: that the protection of children is not one program area among many, but a standard against which decisions are measured. Governor Stitt later recognized that work with an official proclamation.
That conviction did not end with the year. In the 2026 legislative session, the priorities named in 2025 became law. Domestic violence committed in the presence of a child was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony. School employees were required to report suspected abuse to law enforcement within twenty-four hours. Prosecutors gained new tools to hold offenders accountable and to keep children safe. Promise made, promise kept.
Going forward, the commitment is permanent, and the focus holds on three things: prevention — stopping harm before it starts; protection— shielding children from abuse, exploitation, neglect, and violence; and long-term well-being— centering the child's future in the decisions that affect their lives.
District attorneys do that work in every county, alongside child advocacy centers, law enforcement, mental health professionals, and social services across the state's twenty-seven districts.