https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1ig0rzn
created by DaisyDo99 on 02/02/2025 at 16:19 UTC
107 upvotes, 14 top-level comments (showing 14)
Senate Bill 1017, introduced by Sen. Dusty Deevers, poses a grave threat to our children’s well-being and future. This bill seeks to cut essential services like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychological support, counseling, eye exams, and even basic assistive technology—things that many of our kids depend on to succeed in school.
The burden of these critical services would shift entirely to families, assuming that every parent has the time, money, and resources to cover what schools have long been providing. This isn’t a budget issue—it’s a matter of neglect.
These services are not "extras." They are necessary for an appropriate education! For children with speech delays, these therapies help them communicate. For kids recovering from injuries, they help them regain mobility. For students battling mental health issues, they help them survive the day. And for children with undiagnosed vision problems, they prevent academic struggles from becoming lifelong setbacks.
Please contact your legislators today and demand that this bill be stopped—before it even makes it out of committee. Our kids deserve better.
Comment by AutoModerator at 02/02/2025 at 16:19 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Senate Bill 1017, introduced by Sen. Dusty Deevers, poses a grave threat to our children’s well-being and future. This bill seeks to cut essential services like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychological support, counseling, eye exams, and even basic assistive technology—things that many of our kids depend on to succeed in school.
The burden of these critical services would shift entirely to families, assuming that every parent has the time, money, and resources to cover what schools have long been providing. This isn’t a budget issue—it’s a matter of neglect.
These services are not "extras." They are necessary for an appropriate education! For children with speech delays, these therapies help them communicate. For kids recovering from injuries, they help them regain mobility. For students battling mental health issues, they help them survive the day. And for children with undiagnosed vision problems, they prevent academic struggles from becoming lifelong setbacks.
Please contact your legislators today and demand that this bill be stopped—before it even makes it out of committee. Our kids deserve better.
1: /message/compose/?to=/r/oklahoma
Comment by Okie_puffs at 02/02/2025 at 16:26 UTC
48 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Large amounts of public outrage ARE ALREADY possibly having results.
Nothing confirmed yet, but the lawmakers MAAAAYYY be hearing us already. 😅
Granted! They are going to try to re-word shit and present FUNCTIONALLY the same damn things, so it's gonna be Fascist Whack-A-Mole for the foreseeable future.
But I think there's hope in Oklahoma.
Comment by KattMarinaMJ at 02/02/2025 at 16:36 UTC
21 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Edited to add - worth noting: I've seen/heard people write off Dusty Deevers because he produces pretty reliably horrible legislation. This bill apparently has the backing of Ryan Walters so I think if we don't speak out there's a much greater likelihood it'll get farther. Ryan Walters is nothing if not relentless.
Comment by mesocyclonic4 at 02/02/2025 at 18:24 UTC
25 upvotes, 2 direct replies
As the parent of a child with speech therapy in their IEP, this legislation is evil.
Comment by envymd at 02/02/2025 at 19:21 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Written by monsters to deprive the innocent of opportunities they might not have without IEP provided services. It’s a broad group to be clear but if you look at just the autistic, they number 1 out of 68 last I checked. Early intervention carries the most impact on their success. To rob them of services condemns them to a life of ever eroding hope.
How can they be so malicious and claim to be pro-life?! Clearly they’ve never lived in this world so have no compassion for those this would affect.
What is happening to America!! 🇺🇸
Comment by sioomagate at 02/02/2025 at 18:37 UTC*
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
What everyone is missing is these bills absolve Oklahoma from funding services once federal grants are cut off by Trump. Currently, these services are funded through the Department of Education, but if it’s abolished, states must cover the costs. With state income tax disappearing, Oklahoma can’t afford them.
Notably, this bill takes effect on July 1, 2025—the start of the state’s fiscal year—unlike most bills that begin November 1, 2025. This timing suggests lawmakers anticipate losing grant money and are cutting services, like shifting the Department of Mental Health services to the Department of Corrections on another proposed bill.
Comment by Exanguish at 02/02/2025 at 16:30 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The title of that bill is atrocious.
Comment by trunxs2 at 02/02/2025 at 18:23 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Why? Just why? I can see his crackpot reasoning over how he wants to handle porn, but what fucking good evening comes from cutting these services?!?
Comment by Mitch1musPrime at 02/02/2025 at 22:02 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
One of the most successful conversations I had a with Trump flag flying neighbor in Texas ahead of a highly contested school board election to determine the fate of the district’s soul, involved showing up recorded footage at a Christian Dominionist meeting attended by the two current far right board members who’d had little power thus far. In that meeting, speakers continuously referred to disabilities and mental health as demonic possession that shouldn’t be solved by school accommodations and instead required Godly men taking back their households and leading them to Christ.
This dude, a Christian himself, was appalled that the two board members supported this narrative with their presence and that they said nothing to contest or correct it.
Why?
Because he has an adult son with a cognitive disability who’d been well-served by the school district’s programs while still a student. He was grateful for everything his son’s education team had done for their family.
The blow to disability education will likely be the first blow felt by a lot of people because as an educator myself, I can verify there are far more people walking around you everyday with invisible disabilities than most people realize. So when it all finally hurts those who were content to sit back while the targets were immigrants and trans people, we’ll see the public shift we all hoped for a long time ago.
Just like that neighbor who just needed to realize the demonization of immigrants and trans people was also being extended to his son.
Comment by Scorpions_Claw at 02/02/2025 at 21:37 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Fucking republicans!!! 😭😭😭
Comment by JupiterSWarrior at 03/02/2025 at 02:56 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
REPUBLICANS: We wanna help children!
ALSO REPUBLICANS: Files bills that take away help from children.
Make it make sense!!
Comment by Isabella_Bee at 02/02/2025 at 22:29 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
People used to say that Obamacare was a secret job program, because it created so many new jobs.
This will do the opposite.
Comment by jlperry15 at 02/02/2025 at 21:42 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I swear every day I wonder what Ryan Walters can do that will stupider than the day before, and somehow he still surprises me every single day.
Comment by kronikskill at 03/02/2025 at 19:02 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I never had any help with ahit I struggled with I just powered through it like a normal person, and I have a touch of the tism