I recently met with Christie Gillespie to discuss family court reform, child protection, and the growing need for accountability inside Oklahoma’s child welfare system. What emerged from that conversation was not merely frustration about policy. It was a deeper concern about what happens to families when the systems designed to protect children stop being accountable to the very courts they serve.
Most people assume that when a judge signs a subpoena, appearance is mandatory. For ordinary citizens, failure to appear in court can result in immediate consequences, including contempt findings, fines, or legal penalties. Yet across family courts, many parents have experienced something unsettlingly different when it involves DHS. Documents are submitted. Concerns are raised. Hearings are scheduled. Judges issue subpoenas for testimony. Then the agency representative does not appear.
Too often, nothing happens afterward.
The legal problem is obvious. The psychological damage is less visible, but far more dangerous.
When systems repeatedly fail to respond to accountability, families slowly stop believing the system exists to protect truth. They begin believing it exists to protect itself.
Family court is not simply a legal process. It is an emotional and developmental crossroads for children. Decisions made inside those courtrooms shape attachment, emotional regulation, trust, identity formation, and long-term psychological stability.
Research continues to show that prolonged instability, chronic conflict, coercive environments, and unresolved trauma can alter the emotional development of children long after the courtroom battle ends. Children carry those experiences into adulthood, relationships, parenting, and even their sense of personal safety.
That is why accountability matters.
Not because courts need more paperwork.
Not because agencies need more criticism.
But because children deserve systems strong enough to consistently protect them.
One of the greatest concerns raised during these discussions involves the handling of DHS records and testimony in court proceedings. In some cases, critical documents affecting child safety, visitation, abuse concerns, or family stability are later challenged or dismissed because DHS representatives failed to appear in court to authenticate or testify regarding the records submitted. When this occurs, the child often becomes trapped between procedural failure and legal technicality.
Children should never lose protection because a system failed to show up.
This is why I will be working on preparing legislation requiring that documents submitted by DHS in custody and child welfare proceedings be treated as certified legal records through sworn authentication standards, verified records custodians, or court-certified documentation procedures. If courts are expected to rely upon these records when making life-altering decisions about children, then those records must carry accountability, reliability, and legal standing even when agency representatives fail to appear after a lawful subpoena.
This is not about attacking DHS workers. Many are overwhelmed, under-supported, and carrying impossible caseloads while trying to navigate deeply painful family situations. The issue is larger than any single worker. The issue is whether the system itself has enough structure, transparency, and accountability to ensure children do not fall through procedural cracks.
When records disappear into legal ambiguity, children remain vulnerable.
What concerns me most as a therapist, researcher, and advocate is how often adults forget that children interpret instability differently than adults do. Adults call it litigation. Children experience it as uncertainty. Adults call it procedural delay. Children experience it as fear. Adults call it a postponed hearing. Children experience another night wondering whether the people responsible for protecting them will actually do so.
The true measure of a justice system is not how it functions when everything goes smoothly. The true measure is whether it remains accountable when systems fail, when evidence matters, and when children cannot advocate for themselves.
Oklahoma has an opportunity to lead with trauma-informed, child-centered reform that values emotional safety, measurable behavioral patterns, attachment stability, transparency, and accountability. Courts need reliable records. Judges need verified evidence. Families deserve consistency. Most importantly, children deserve systems willing to stand behind the documents submitted in their name.
A subpoena should not become a suggestion simply because the institution involved is powerful.
A child’s safety should never depend on whether the system decides to show up that day.
What I learned through this process surprised me.
I did not realize that a State Senator has the authority to request information, review concerns, and intervene when serious questions arise involving agencies entrusted with protecting children. During my meeting with Christie Gillespie, I provided documentation and information regarding concerns surrounding DHS failing to appear in court for a child despite a judicial subpoena and the potential impact that failure may have had on the child’s protection and the court’s ability to evaluate the case fully.
Senator Gillespie has agreed to look further into why DHS failed to appear and whether procedural failures within the system may have affected the child involved. That matters because accountability matters, and children deserve systems willing to answer when courts call.
Far too many families feel powerless once they enter the family court system. Many assume there is nowhere to turn when agencies fail, records disappear into procedural confusion, or concerns are dismissed without explanation. Elected officials can ask questions, request oversight, and examine whether the systems designed to protect children are functioning as intended.
So if you genuinely believe DHS or another child-serving agency is failing a child, do not remain silent. Reach out to your State Representative or State Senator. Ask them to intervene. Ask them to investigate. Ask them to look deeper. Systems improve when citizens refuse to normalize silence around children’s safety.
I sincerely thank Senator Christie Gillespie for being willing to listen, investigate, and stand up for Oklahoma families and children. Accountability is not politics when children are involved. Accountability is protection.