Despite strong evidence that home visiting promotes healthy families and children, state officials have diverted millions of dollars from the program in order to fund child care assistance.
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Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Lawsuit: New Mexico is wrongly denying child care benefits
Five New Mexico residents are suing the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), claiming the state is effectively cheating eligible low-income families out of money to pay for child care.
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Many grandparents raising kids locked out of state aid
The number of children being raised by grandparents has exploded across New Mexico, nearly doubling to more than 55,000 — 10 percent of all the state’s children — since 1990. But many of those grandparents have found themselves denied assistance, often even when they meet eligibility requirements.
Posted inFull Archive, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children
Emilia’s story: Family, tradition, addiction
I discovered a core of human goodness in troubled places, and it struck me as one of the great ironies that such darkness persists amidst such a culture of deep-rooted familial strength.
Posted inFull Archive
Spend wisely to boost child well-being, finance official says
New Mexico tends to wait to deal with problems until they grow overly expensive and challenging to solve, Charles Sallee of the Legislative Finance Committee told a forum on early childhood issues this week.
Posted inFull Archive
Risky buildings: State’s public schools run on old infrastructure
Problems with school “systems” — which include everything from broken furnaces to mildewed carpets and shredded electrical wires — are rampant across the state, according to a Searchlight New Mexico analysis of data collected by the agency charged with awarding money to help keep the public schools running.
Posted inFull Archive
Years of frustration lie behind landmark school lawsuit
For Wilhelmina Yazzie, joining the groundbreaking lawsuit against New Mexico wasn’t an easy thing to do. It was the only thing to do.
Posted inFull Archive
How the Yazzie lawsuit could be a ‘game-changer’
Behind the recent ruling in the New Mexico school funding lawsuit is nearly a decade of evidence that the state’s public schools are not only failing children, but that children will be “irreparably harmed” if schools aren’t improved.
Posted inFull Archive
College-focused charter network eyes New Mexico
EL PASO, Texas – The kindergarteners of IDEA Edgemere walked quietly single-file down the hall, their uniforms embroidered with the school logo, left hands behind their backs, right fingers over their lips. Shh. Emblazoned on the wall above their heads, a sign read: “We do whatever it takes.”
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Charter schools target New Mexico’s at-risk students
Sara Tafoya never pictured herself as one of New Mexico’s at-risk students. She came from a supportive, college-educated family in Albuquerque, had once earned good grades, and entertained dreams of going to college and becoming a physical therapist.
But in her sophomore year, Tafoya “attracted bad situations,” skipping classes – sometimes for weeks at a time. By the time she found out she was pregnant at age 15, she faced a hurdle that typically derails a girl’s education.
