Youth crisis shelters aren’t set up to deal with foster youth who need intensive mental health treatment. When teens try to harm themselves or others, staff resort to calling 911.
Ed Williams
Ed Williams, a Searchlight investigative reporter, won the 2019 News Leader Association's Frank A. Blethen Award in local accountability reporting for his stories about abuses in the foster care system. He also was an NLA award finalist in 2020 for an expose about the abusive discipline of students with disabilities. Ed has been a reporter in both the United States and Latin America, working for print, digital and radio outlets. He spent seven years in public radio before joining Searchlight, where he covers foster care, social justice and other issues. He was a 2016 USC Annenberg Health Journalism Fellow and earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010.
Text Ed securely using Signal encryption at (505) 699-6401
Posted inNew Mexico's Children
New Mexico Struggles to Follow Through on Promises to Reform Child Welfare System
New Mexico Struggles With Reforming Child Welfare System
Posted inFeatured, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
CYFD deputy secretary steps down
Terry Locke, deputy secretary of CYFD, has announced his retirement, the latest in a string of departures from the agency responsible for the well-being of the state’s most vulnerable children.
Posted inFeatured, Full Archive, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children
New accusations in Farmington foster care abuse case
Suit says CYFD knew of abuse at Farmington foster home, failed to protect kids
Posted inFeatured, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
Blalock steps down
CYFD Cabinet secretary Brian Blalock replaced by former New Mexico Supreme Court Justice amid growing transparency concerns
Posted inFeatured, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
Questions of fairness
CYFD employees say they were sidelined or fired for voicing concerns about a ‘sacred cow’ software contract.
Posted inEnvironment, Featured, Full Archive, New Mexico's Children, New Mexico's Children, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
Firing Back
High-level officials accuse the CYFD of retaliation against complaints about Signal and other concerns.
Posted inCoronavirus, Eviction, Eviction Epidemic, Featured, Gallup Part 3, Hitting Home, Housing
Seeking shelter
After suffering one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the country, this New Mexico town on the edge of Navajo Nation is reaching a breaking point as the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire.
Posted inFeatured, New Mexico's Children, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
Records without a trace
Records show CYFD destroyed communications on COVID response, other official documents. Employees who complained were fired.
Posted inFeatured, Health, Politics, Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD, Your Right To Know
Agency underground
In the state department charged with child welfare, leadership and staff avoid a paper trail with encrypted messaging.