Oklahoma has more at-risk youth than 48 other states, according to a recent study.
Youth between the ages of 18 to 24 years of age face unique challenges as they transition into adulthood including academic struggles, poor health conditions and lack of a support system. Oklahoma, the July study by personal finance company WalletHub found, has a surplus of all of those factors.
The environment youths grow up in impacts them in every aspect, especially if they face economic problems, come from a single-parent household and lack positive role models. Those factors can lead to poverty, early pregnancy and violence, WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said.
“So that’s even more difficult for Americans, and you throw into that high inflation and other economic difficulties, that only makes the situation worse,” Lupo said.
Oklahoma’s youth are struggling to obtain a proper education and are limited in offerings for activities, alongside neighboring states that face similar challenges, according to the study.
What the study found
In Oklahoma, youths are not meeting educational benchmarks. Nearly 15% of people between 18 and 24 years old do not have a high school diploma.
Only 17% of eighth graders are showing proficiency in math test scores, and 20% are meeting reading standards. Oklahoma ranks fifth for the highest rate of youth not attending school or working.
“School is probably one of the first things to go when a family is experiencing that high level of stress. You don’t go to school because who is going to get them to school? Who’s going to get them to the bus?” said Caroline Olsen, associate director of community relations and communications at Youth Services Tulsa. The organization serves individuals between 12 and 24 years of age.
The study found 30% of Oklahoma’s youth are limited in community activities because of mental, physical or emotional problems.
Oklahoma sits at No. 2 while Louisiana has the most at-risk youth in the U.S., according to the annual study. New Mexico, South Dakota and Arkansas come after Oklahoma on the list.
“These are all, for the most part, low-income states, a lot of rural areas, a lot of poor economies,” Lupo said. “In these situations, there’s high poverty, there’s high crime, the family structure tends to suffer.”
Creating support systems
One of the main characteristics Youth Services of Tulsa sees in their young clients is a lack of trust with adults in their lives, Olsen said.
“There’s a lack of a support system, and what that means is you probably haven’t developed great coping skills,” Olsen said. “You don’t have many self-care tools in your toolkit and I think that that can really hinder what we would call ‘normal progress.’”
One of the programs available at the center, located at 311 S. Madison Ave., is individual and family counseling services in Spanish. The organization counseled 612 youths in fiscal year 2024, according to its annual report.
There is a large contingency of Latino youth using counseling services. The organization declined to provide demographic information of clients to La Semana.
Youth Services of Tulsa also offers a reentry program to help juvenile offenders return to their communities. Case managers meet with juveniles who have committed a serious offense. In fiscal year 2024, 104 youth were assisted in returning to their community and 398 individuals participated in skill building to prevent future court involvement.
This program has helped lower the recidivism rate, or the tendency to reoffend, for Tulsa youth in comparison to the rest of the country, Olsen said. Counselors are taught to build trusting relationships with youths to help them work through mistakes and trauma.
“When they have that bond, they’re more likely to show up. They’re more likely to be accountable. They’re more likely to, you know, own mistakes and help work through them,” Olsen said.
Lea este artículo en español aquí.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
