More than 100 children in New Mexico’s foster system are in homes and treatment facilities in other states, according to numbers provided by the state Children, Youth and Families Department this week.
The numbers mark the latest uptick in a practice the agency was directed to curb years ago through the landmark Kevin S. child welfare lawsuit. Critics argue sending children out of New Mexico limits the amount of check-ins they receive, restricts watchdogs’ ability to provide oversight to the facilities kids end up in and leads to them not receiving the services they need.
Although CYFD had been able to reduce the number of children it was sending to other states to a small fraction of its pre-pandemic numbers in 2022, New Mexico has increasingly relied on the practice, and is on pace to backslide completely.
“The number of out-of-state placements has risen because the needs of the children are more complex, requiring specialized medical care and services provided mainly in a treatment center,” department spokesperson Jake Thompson wrote in a statement. “… New Mexico is working to build out in-state services, which will reduce reliance on out-of-state placements.”
But Bette Fleishman, a member of the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the Kevin S. case, said in an interview the trend is cause for concern.
“To have that many kids out of state — that makes me very sad,” Fleishman said.
Numbers ‘stunning’
As part of a class-action civil case brought in 2018 by over a dozen foster children known as the Kevin S. lawsuit, the state in 2020 reached a settlement agreement in which it committed to a number of reforms to New Mexico’s child welfare system. That included minimizing the state’s reliance on sending children to other states for care or placement.
For years, New Mexico made progress.
Fifty-seven children were placed in out-of-state facilities starting in 2019, according to an annual report penned by field experts in the case published earlier this month. That number gradually decreased over the years, and in 2022 hit a low of 14 children.
Since then, though, the number of children being sent out of state have been on the rise, reaching 32 in 2024. And this year, they appear to have jumped up significantly.
So far this year, a total 186 children have experienced 254 out-of-state placements, with 102 of those children currently staying in another state, according to numbers provided by CYFD. Some 108 children experienced 143 new out-of-state placements this year, meaning they were sent out of New Mexico in 2025 and had not carried over from years past.
Most of the children placed outside New Mexico starting this year overall have gone to family-based settings. Still, 57 placements were in congregate care settings, many of them residential treatment centers.
It was not clear Friday if the field experts’ reported totals of children staying in out-of-state facilities also included children in family-based settings. Nevertheless, the total of 57 new out-of-state placements as of late November appeared to mark a significant backslide in New Mexico’s progress — the state made 32 new placements in out-of-state facilities in 2021.
Fleishman said the numbers were “stunning.”
As an attorney representing the interests of many children during legal proceedings, Fleishman said she has seen several children sent to places outside New Mexico, including facilities in Wisconsin, Indiana and Idaho.
Because they are so far away, she said it is very difficult to visit and check in with them, much less bring any level of accountability to the facilities and quality of care they are receiving. Importantly, Fleishman added children sent out of state — who often have some of the highest needs of any children in New Mexico’s foster care system — rarely actually get the services they need and theoretically have been shipped off to receive.
“They were sent to facilities that did not match their needs — it was just, they were sent to facilities that would accept them,” she said.
Oversight questions
CYFD workers struggled to adequately visit children outside New Mexico, according to the field experts’ report. Those children often faced mental health struggles, including post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, and more than half of them were between the ages of 11 and 13.
Thompson wrote that each out-of-state placement is reviewed by the Cabinet secretaries of CYFD and the state Health Care Authority, and the department meets with clinicians and doctors to determine the needs of children based on their diagnoses or other assessments.
While he said New Mexico “is always the first option for placement,” children sometimes just need specialized services they cannot get in New Mexico, adding those can range from treatment for neurodevelopment, maladaptive sexual behaviors, intellectual disabilities or high behavioral health needs because the child is aggressive.
He said the state is working to identify children with high needs earlier on to get them the treatment they require, and that New Mexico would benefit from places for children to stabilize after significant treatment and outpatient services that can work with families in their homes.
“These children have very specialized needs that are currently unavailable in New Mexico, although the state is working to build those services for a small population of children,” Thompson wrote. “Other children are placed out of state for good reasons, either with relatives or in pre-adoptive homes.”