Lawmakers are fed up.
New Mexico has the worst child fatality rate of all Western states, with 14 deaths tied to failures by the state in the past two years alone. It has a child maltreatment rate of 12.6 children per 1,000, 40% over the national average. And of those abused and neglected children, the state has a repeat maltreatment rate of 15% or more — compared to a national target of 9%.
These numbers, presented by the New Mexico Department of Justice to lawmakers of the Legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee on Friday, prompted harsh criticism from the panel of the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department.
They said the Justice Department’s report, based on findings from a yearlong investigation into CYFD, represented deep failures by the state’s leaders, and vowed to make deep structural changes in the coming legislative session.
“This is obscene — that’s what your report should read,” said Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat and chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. “… We can pass laws all day long. But if you don’t have good, solid people who are accountable and responsible and courageous, it’s never going to make a difference. And we’ve not had that accountability.”
CYFD was not made aware of the Justice Department’s findings until they were released to the media, and was not given a chance to discuss the report with the agency directly, spokesperson Jake Thompson wrote in an emailed statement. However, he said many of the Justice Department’s recommendations were not new, and that CYFD had already been working on them.
Thompson added that the agency has made significant progress in recent months, including by licensing 73 new nonrelative and 324 relative foster homes this year, lowering vacancy rates among frontline child protective services workers by 9 percentage points so far this year, to 19.2 in May, and expanding specialized foster care and behavioral health services.
“Over the past 10 months, CYFD has made measurable progress in key areas that improve the care, protections and services provided to New Mexico’s vulnerable children and families,” Thompson wrote. “We’ve substantially improved placements for children who come into foster care, connecting them to relative and non-relative parents and providing them with needed services, treatment and help they need to thrive.”
Sean Sullivan, special counsel at the Justice Department, made a number of legislative proposals aimed at fixing problems facing CYFD and snarling efforts to hold the agency accountable. They included ideas to require more qualifications of the people chosen to lead CYFD and increasing the powers of child welfare watchdogs.
The recommendations came after the Justice Department in April published a sweeping report uncovering a number of systemic issues at CYFD. The report came after a yearlong investigation into the agency, and was prompted by the suicide death of a 16-year-old boy at an Albuquerque group home.
“Our investigation found more than a collection of isolated mistakes. It’s what we deemed to be pervasive, systemic issues at the department,” Sullivan said. “They place children at unnecessary risk, and far too often deny them the safety, stability and permanency that they deserve.”
Leadership standard
Problems at CYFD often start at the top and trickle down, Sullivan told lawmakers.
Many of the agency’s recent leaders have lacked prior experience in child welfare before stepping into the role, Sullivan said, a fact that spurred frustration among lawmakers with New Mexico’s foster care system.
“Why is the head of CYFD appointed by a political entity? It should be a professional that’s hired,” said Rep. William Hall II, R-Aztec.
Sullivan suggested an amendment to state statute to require CYFD’s Cabinet secretary to hold professional child welfare experience, and for leaders of the agency to go through recurring training in best practices and the law.
Los Alamos Democratic Rep. Christine Chandler, chair of the committee, also suggested that the state Senate — which typically confirms governors’ appointments to positions like Cabinet secretaries — could play more of a role in controlling who leads CYFD.
Transparency
Lawmakers also decried CYFD’s efforts to shirk responsibility for the deaths of children on its watch or for other negative outcomes in the state’s foster care system.
Sullivan, whose agency has long criticized CYFD for its reticence in taking accountability or providing transparency to those seeking to examine issues within the department, said its playbook is often the same.
“They deflect, they often deny the existence or extent of many of these challenges, and frankly, from my perspective, often defend the indefensible,” he told lawmakers.
He pointed to a situation that has commanded headlines in recent days in which CYFD is reported to have taken a 15-year-old boy — who is an American citizen with a serious heart condition — to the U.S.-Mexico border and told him to cross alone to reunite with his mother. The boy did not want to live with her, according to reports. Sullivan said the Justice Department plans to pursue legal action against CYFD to reverse the move.
Thompson again noted the Justice Department did not give CYFD a chance to discuss its findings directly, though he said the agency has publicly acknowledged its struggles a number of times.
“The DOJ has never invited CYFD to discuss its findings, and we would welcome that opportunity,” he wrote. “In at least a half dozen public legislative hearings this year, the department has acknowledged the challenges identified in the report, and others it faces, and explained what the department is doing to improve every aspect of child welfare in New Mexico.”
Thompson added CYFD had not yet received any legal action in the 15-year-old’s case as of 5 p.m.
Cervantes and Chandler pointed to the Legislature’s late-session decision last year to water down a bill creating the Office of Child Advocate — a new agency designed to examine issues within CYFD — by removing a provision granting subpoena power to the office.
The move, described at the time as a compromise between legislators and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in an effort to get the latter to sign the bill, pulled the teeth from a measure designed to provide an authoritative watchdog for the troubled CYFD, they said. Sullivan noted the leader of the office, Dawn Walters, has not been met with cooperation from CYFD in her investigations, including by not receiving records.
“The Office of the Child Advocate’s role was watered down in a way so that it’s harder for that person to play as meaningful a role as we would like,” Chandler said. “It’s very disappointing to hear that they’re having difficulty getting the information they need to perform their responsibilities, and we’ll have to take a look at that.”
