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STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2nd Session of the 60th Legislature (2026)
SENATE BILL 2059 By: Deevers
AS INTRODUCED
An Act relating to income tax; creating the Promote
Child Thriving Act; providing short title; stating
intent; providing credit for certain married
individuals with dependents; prescribing credit
amount; stipulating qualifications; requiring the
credit to be claimed on a form prescribed by the
Oklahoma Tax Commission; prohibiting refundability of
credit; providing for the carry forward of credit;
providing penalty; providing for noncodification;
providing for codification; providing an effective
date; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law not to be
codified in the Oklahoma Statutes reads as follows:
This act shall be known and may be cited as the “Promote Child
Thriving Act”.
SECTION 2. NEW LAW A new section of law not to be
codified in the Oklahoma Statutes reads as follows:
The Legislature finds that:
1. Children have a primal and indelible relation to their
mother and father. It is a fundamental claim of justice that,
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whenever possible, children be raised in a marital home by the two
persons whose union gave them life, bequeathed them their unique
identity and characteristics, and joined them to a genealogical
history of maternal and paternal kinship. It is a compelling state
interest, priority, and responsibility to honor and protect the
natural marital family context for the sake of children whose
identity and life prospects are so substantially implicated by it;
2. Accordingly, and as Justice Sotomayor summarized in her
dissenting opinion in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 570 U.S. 637,
673 (2013) (Sotomayor, J., dissenting), that the biological bond
between parent and child is meaningful, that children have an
interest in knowing their biological parents, and that the
deprivation of a child’s relationship with mother or father is a
loss that cannot be measured;
3. The natural family relationship of husband and wife and
their offspring is an aspect of human nature and community anterior
to and transcending state discretion. As the Supreme Court
acknowledged in Smith v. Org. of Foster Families for Equal & Reform,
431 U.S. 816, 845 (1977), unlike, for instance, the state-initiated
and -directed foster care relation, the natural family is “a
relationship having its origins entirely apart from the power of the
State,” therefore has its unique prerogatives founded “in intrinsic
human rights, as they have been understood in this Nation’s history
and tradition”;
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4. Federal and state constitutional case law and historic state
family law standards accord unique deference and protection to the
marital relationship and the relation of natural mother and father
to child, and that a child’s loss of relationship with the child’s
mother or father is a lamentable outcome that venerable legal
standards aim to discourage and avoid;
5. Evidence from multiple areas of study reveals that children
who grow up apart from one or both biological parents tend, by
statistically significant margins, to fare worse and to be
substantially disadvantaged compared to cohorts of children raised
by their mother and father in a marital household. And that:
a. biological parents are statistically the safest, most
connected to, most invested in, and most protective
adults in a child’s life. Children who are raised by
both biological parents in a married relationship
suffer the lowest rates of obesity, drug use, and
incarceration. They have the highest rates of
academic success and emotional health, and are most
likely to escape or avoid poverty,
b. loss of a parent affects a child’s physical,
mental/emotional, and educational outcomes,
c. cohabitation of a child’s biological parents does not
produce the same benefit for children. Studies show
the nonmarital cohabitation relationship of a child’s
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mother and father is not a benefit equivalent to a
home of a married father and mother, citing increased
risk of parental breakup, abuse, and poverty,
d. there are no known remedial government programs or
subsidies which can replace or compensate for the loss
to children of an upbringing in the marital home of
their mother and father, and
e. being raised outside of the home of a child’s married
biological parents tends toward multigenerational
continuation. Data reveals that children of single
mothers are more likely to have children out of
marriage, children of divorce are more likely to
themselves divorce, and children created via third-
party sperm or egg are more likely to dissociate
themselves from their genetic children via “donating”
when they reach adulthood. Failing to fortify a
child’s family leads to future broken families;
6. The clear connection between natural parental bonds and
child welfare obligates the state to incentivize homes that unite
children to both mother and father. Studies show that the best
means to achieve that end is to encourage biological parents to be
married to one another;
7. This state’s financial incentivizing of children’s
upbringing in a home with their married mother and father will
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minimize the need for government anti-poverty funds, child
protective services, academic support, police involvement, and other
state emergency or remedial aid;
8. Adoptive parents, widowed parents, and other guardians may
provide loving and stable homes for children and that such
relationships may warrant distinct consideration under other
provisions of law; and
9. The purpose of this act is not to disparage or diminish
those households, but to address a specific, empirically documented
state interest: incentivizing the formation and preservation of
marital households uniting children with their biological mother and
father, which the Legislature finds to be uniquely associated with
the highest aggregate outcomes for child thriving and long-term
public welfare.
SECTION 3. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified
in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 2357.701 of Title 68, unless
there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows:
A. For tax year 2026 and subsequent tax years, there shall be
allowed a credit against the tax imposed pursuant to Section 2355 of
Title 68 of the Oklahoma Statutes for married mothers and fathers of
biological children in the following amounts:
1. Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) for each child under eighteen
(18) years of age and residing in the parents’ home while the
child’s biological mother and father are married to each other; and
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2. One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) for each child under
eighteen (18) years of age if the child’s biological mother and
father were married prior to the child’s birth.
B. To qualify for the credit authorized pursuant to subsection
A of this section, the biological parents shall:
1. Be listed on the birth certificate of the dependent or be
the custodial parent during the entirety of the tax year;
2. Reside in the same household as the dependent for at least
six (6) months of the tax year, except when:
a. a biological parent is enlisted as an active duty
member of the Armed Forces of the United States and
deployed for at least six (6) months of the tax year,
or
b. the dependent is born during the tax year; and
3. Be married for the entirety of the tax year.
C. The credit authorized pursuant to this section shall be
claimed on a form prescribed by the Oklahoma Tax Commission and
shall include, under penalty of perjury, the following statements of
attestation:
1. That the taxpayers are legally married;
2. That the taxpayers have resided in the same household with
the child for at least six (6) months of the calendar year
corresponding to the tax year for which the credit is claimed,
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unless exempted pursuant to paragraph 2 of subsection B of this
section; and
3. That the dependent is the biological child of the taxpayers.
D. The credit allowed pursuant to the provisions of this
section shall not be used to reduce the income tax liability of the
taxpayer to less than zero (0).
E. If the amount of the credit allowed pursuant to this section
exceeds the income tax liability, the amount of credit not used in
any tax year may be carried forward, in order, to each of the ten
(10) subsequent tax years.
F. Claims for credit pursuant to this section that contain
fraudulent information shall be denied, and the Tax Commission shall
recover any allowed credit claimed with fraudulent information and
may levy penalties in an amount not to exceed Five Hundred Dollars
($500.00).
SECTION 4. This act shall become effective July 1, 2026.
SECTION 5. It being immediately necessary for the preservation
of the public peace, health or safety, an emergency is hereby
declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and
be in full force from and after its passage and approval.
60-2-3468 QD 1/15/2026 11:21:30 AM