A new foster care case management system that’s been in development for nearly a decade and was previously expected to cost New Mexico more than $90 million is now poised to incur new costs and suffer further setbacks, according to a state analysis.
New Mexico Impact, which was scheduled to go live Monday after a setback that pushed out a planned implementation in February, is not expected to reach frontline workers of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department until October, according to a report by the Legislative Finance Committee last week.
However, amid a delayed training schedule for employees, analysts fear the information system — which will be used to help manage cases and potentially alleviate the workloads of foster care caseworkers — may still not be usable by frontline employees until even later.
“LFC staff remain concerned that the system may still be unusable by then because CYFD user training is not scheduled until late September,” analysts wrote in the report.
CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson wrote in a statement that New Mexico Impact went live on Monday and contains up-to-date case information. He said staff will continue to use the old case management system, known as the Family Automated Client Tracking System, or FACTS, and that it will remain the system of record until Oct. 13.
He highlighted the importance of the project, noting it will replace a more than 25-year-old system and improve employees’ access to information, reporting and real-time data. He acknowledged, though, that the project is large and complex, and has been “challenged by resource constraints, a compressed implementation schedule, and changes in scope.”
“All teams have worked diligently to overcome these challenges and build this robust system,” Thompson wrote. “… We’re fully committed to delivering a reliable system that helps us better support the children and families we serve.”
New Mexico originally launched an effort to modernize its child welfare information system in 2017 as part of a push to comply with new federal rules pushing states to overhaul their systems.
The project has seen a number of setbacks since then, including the six-month delay leading to Monday’s rollout, and a bloating budget — the project, analysts noted, originally was expected to cost $32 million and be completed by October 2022.
So far, the state has spent $57.6 million on the project, according to the New Mexico Department of Information Technology’s online project management portal. The project is estimated to cost a total $90.4 million.
That total may grow to more than $95 million, analysts said. They wrote in the report CYFD has requested $5 million in the coming legislative session, “despite previously indicating its $9 million FY27 appropriation would complete the project.”
Thompson said New Mexico Impact is heavily funded through federal dollars, and said approximately 63% of the system’s costs throughout the time it is in service are eligible to be covered through federal money.
The additional $5 million “should therefore not be viewed solely as additional funding to launch NM Impact, but as funding needed to support the continued implementation and operation of NM Impact after it goes live,” Thompson wrote. That will include system improvements, maintenance and other costs, he added.
Thompson also pushed back against the committee’s concerns about delayed training for the project, writing it is “incorrect to suggest that user training won’t begin until September” and noting the system is up and running so workers can get accustomed to using it.
“In fact, user training began in June, continues through August and will be ongoing through the fall,” he wrote.
