New PED head tasked with implementing sweeping reforms.
Ed Williams
Ed Williams, a Searchlight investigative reporter, covers child welfare, social justice and other issues. In 2022, he was selected for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to produce stories about abuses in the foster care system and the devastating impacts on children. Before joining Searchlight, Ed was a reporter in both the United States and Latin America, working for print, digital and radio outlets, including seven years in public radio. His numerous journalism awards include a 2022 First Amendment award and 2019 local accountability reporting award from the News Leaders Association. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Restraint, Seclusion, Deception
Parents, regulators left in the dark over school behavior management techniques
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Criminalizing Disability
Special-needs kids who don’t get help in school are winding up in jail.
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Left Behind: Where does the funding go?
New Mexico public schools get most of their budget — around 70 percent — from the state, based on a complex formula that takes into account everything from poverty rates to the number of special needs students. But once districts get that money, they have wide leeway as to how they actually spend it. And […]
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Left Behind
QUESTA – When the fire alarm sounded before lunch in November of 2017, the staff at Alta Vista Elementary School knew they had a problem. A 6-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair needed to evacuate with the rest of his class. Unfortunately, the school had never purchased a chair that would let him leave the […]
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
One generation removed: Raised by grandparents
Across New Mexico, grandparents have become an unofficial safety net, stepping up to raise the grandkids when their own children can’t. Cases of “kinship guardianship,” as it is known, are hardly unique to the state. But in New Mexico, where family ties run deep, grandparents are playing an unusually common role in caring for their grandkids.
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
Pay now and pay later
Expensive, buggy software has resulted in needy families being improperly denied benefits throughout New Mexico.
Posted inChild & Family Welfare
La Familia-Namaste to shut down following reports of safety lapses
With the closure of La Familia-Namaste, options for treatment foster care in New Mexico will be reduced further, leaving families scrambling to find vital services for their kids.
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.
