Introduction

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) is once again offering web access to its annual report via a partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Data from a variety of sources has been collected and analyzed to report on the well-being of children and youth in our state. Oklahoma and federal agencies, private consultants and businesses, foundations and other organizations have contributed information and assistance to help the OICA issue the report.

The 2005 report's special focus is A Picture of Child Health in Oklahoma. This special section looks at access to health care, environmental factors, and other issues that impact the physical and emotional health of our youngest citizens.

This 10th Oklahoma Kids Count report also modernizes the time frame and the benchmarks used to profile the status of children in our state. The baseline for comparing current and future progress (or lack thereof) has been moved to the mid-1990s. The county benchmarks and the related data tables are now only available online, which has allowed a more detailed narrative of state benchmarks in the print publication.