Experts document CYFD’s dismal performance in 2024 - Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal
The year 2024 saw dismal progress in reforming the state Children, Youth and Families Department, a new report concludes, with more children than ever housed in inappropriate places and almost half of new protective service hires quitting in their first year.
The number of child placements in CYFD offices around the state “exploded” from the prior year. The number more than doubled, from 322 in 2023 to 709 last year, according to the latest annual report from two national child welfare experts retained by the state.
Thirty-three percent of the children or youth had to stay in an office after leaving a foster care placement, and nearly a quarter landed there after being removed from their homes. Some 63 children moved directly from an acute hospital stay to a CYFD office in 2024.
For the first time since 2021, none of the office placement documents for those children showed the required approval of then-CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados, who resigned in September, or the agency’s Protective Services director, the report stated.
Though a new management team at the agency took over in September, the experts stated, “this report is about 2024, and the report reflects a state system in unyielding crisis that lost significant ground, with multiple examples throughout these pages of worsening performance and deteriorating experiences and outcomes for children.”
The annual assessment by Judith Meltzer, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, D.C., and Kevin Ryan, of Public Analyst, based in Iselin, New Jersey, was derived from data and interviews with 92 foster parents, 120 CYFD staff and supervisors, and additional interviews when they visited several CYFD facilities.
The compliance report is required under a settlement reached by the state in 2020 in a federal civil rights lawsuit, dubbed Kevin S. for one of its plaintiffs, who was a foster child.
The experts concluded that for 2024, “the State’s performance was dismal and a discredit to the many staff, (foster) parents, and community partners who are committed to improving the experiences and futures of New Mexico’s children, youth and families.”
CYFD, in a statement from new Deputy Secretary Kathyleen Kunkel, said it didn’t dispute the findings.
“The report reflects a child welfare system that struggled significantly during calendar year 2024 and we take full responsibility. However, CYFD’s new experienced leadership team, which came on board beginning in September, has been laser-focused on tackling the areas of greatest need identified in the report. We are moving forward aggressively to achieve better results this year and next.”
Tara Ford, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Kevin S. case, said the report’s findings, particularly documenting the children placed in offices, shows “the need for change could not be more dire. The State must directly reckon with the harsh realities impacting children in foster care.”
The report also noted:
- Fourteen percent of children in state custody in 2024 experienced a placement in an office or out-of-state facility, double the rate from 2023, affecting nearly 500% more children than in 2019.
- The rate of housing moves for children in state custody because of abuse or neglect was the worst since 2020.
- Staff turnover continued to be a problem, with 48% of those who quit in 2024 leaving in their first year.
- Though the number of foster homes, both nonrelative and relative, increased from 970 in 2023 to 1,067 in 2024, the highest number since 2021, the number of nonrelative foster homes fell from 675 in January 2021 to 500 in December 2024.
“And fueling much of this: an overworked CYFD staff, forced to carry unreasonable high caseloads, supervise children housed in unsuitable CYFD offices with inadequate or no training, and work mandatory overnight and weekend shifts because the agency failed to staff adequately for its 24/7 mission in 2024,” the report stated.
It added: “The state’s performance either remained stagnant with 2023, or in numerous instances important to children, worsened.”
Of the 708 office placements reviewed for 2024, for example, 39% of the children stayed six or more nights, up from 21% a year earlier.
“CYFD caseloads drive much of the poor performance,” the report states. “When caseloads are too high, workers are unable to engage with children and families, complete needed assessments, develop and monitor case plans, assess children’s safety, support efforts toward permanency, in addition to other responsibilities.”
New Mexico Child First Network Executive Director Maralyn Beck said on Friday, “This report should raise every alarm we have. Our kids, our families, our workers — they deserve dignity. They deserve action. It’s time to do better.”
NM officials issue warning over high metals in Mora County groundwater - Source New Mexico
The New Mexico environment and health departments on Friday issued an alert urging Mora County residents to test their private wells following the discovery of high levels of metal in the groundwater.
While the source of the metals has not been determined, a news release noted that they ones are found in fire suppressant materials used to battle wildfires — including the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire.
“There are potential long-term health effects that can develop over several years if people continue to drink untreated water with these levels of metals,” New Mexico Department Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau Chief Chelsea Langer said in a statement. “The only way to know for sure what is in your well water is to have it tested by a certified laboratory.”
According to the news release, those metals at higher concentrations or with long-term exposure “can damage the kidneys, skin, cardiovascular system, and nervous system.” Infants, young children and pregnant people have the most sensitivity, particularly to arsenic and manganese, which can impact brain development.
According to a news release, three metals, antimony, arsenic and uranium, exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water limits, and the study found elevated levels of manganese beyond the EPA guidelines as well.
An independent study also found barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, thallium and vanadium at elevated levels, but within EPA standards.
The New Mexico Environment Department is recommending all private well owners test their water at a certified lab, and decrease exposure by drinking bottled water “when possible.” Moreover, NMED recommends installing whole-house reverse osmosis systems “out of an abundance of caution.”
The state says it will be developing additional plans for testing and water treatment solutions.
NMDOH is collaborating with the NMED and the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) for further testing and long-term solutions for water treatment to eliminate potential harm.
New Mexico is installing free water filters to address ‘forever chemical’ contamination - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
The garden beds are empty in José Villegas’ backyard, and the land where he grew even more corn and calabasas is a flat stretch of dirt. The La Cieneguilla resident removed his garden after the well water at his home tested positive for chemical contamination two years ago.
“This is what fed my babies — my babies and my grandchildren,” Villegas said. “They get all excited when they see a big, old, giant pumpkin, right? That’s how you sustain yourself.”
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also called PFAS or “forever chemicals” because of their resistance to breaking down — are synthetic chemicals used in consumer and industrial products that have been linked to health issues. Plants grown with PFAS-contaminated water can sometimes accumulate PFAS, according to a Michigan State University guide, although more research is needed to understand how much PFAS will end up in the plants.
One in three parcels in the Santa Fe County communities of La Cieneguilla and La Cienega are affected by PFAS groundwater contamination, according to a report by research firm INTERA. Meanwhile, Curry County has some of the highest PFAS contamination documented in the state after decades of firefighting foam use at Cannon Air Force Base.
New Mexico’s Environment Department (NMED) is doing free water testing and giving away free water filters in those communities.
“The chemicals that we’re seeing in New Mexico tend to be associated with the older types of PFAS, what I would call the long-chain chemicals,” said state Environment Secretary James Kenney. “They’re the ones that have the most scientific data around them, and those are the ones that typically do cause things like kidney cancer, or liver cancer or interfere with reproductive health in both men and women.”
In 2023, Villegas’ private well tested positive for three of the six types of PFAS included in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standards. One of those chemicals is connected to firefighting foam, he said. A blood test confirmed the same three PFAS were in Villegas’ body. Three of his brothers died of cancer, something he believes is linked to the groundwater contamination.
To avoid contact with the contaminated water, Villegas and his wife buy 5-gallon jugs of water to drink, fill the washing machine and bathe. They recently invested $5,000 into a filtration system for their well, and every six months the filter will have to be replaced for approximately $800. Villegas still does not drink the well water.
“But we did this so we can set an example to the community that you need to put something, at least something, to protect yourselves and your family,” Villegas said.
New Mexico’s Legislature appropriated $2 million earlier this year to address private well water contamination from PFAS. The state is trying to mitigate highest-risk communities first, Kenney said, which is why NMED is offering filters in Santa Fe and Curry counties.
“The levels are just significantly too high,” he said.
If PFAS contamination is confirmed, then the state can provide residents with either a filtration system for their private well or for faucets in their home. NMED has contracted TLC Plumbing to install home water filters, and the agency expects water filters to be installed in the next month, according to NMED spokesman Drew Goretzka.
The filtration systems can cost in the range of $2,000 to $5,000 to purchase and install. There is also some upkeep for the systems on a quarterly or yearly basis, Kenney said.
It’s unclear in Santa Fe County exactly where the groundwater contamination originated. The plume is near a National Guard outpost, an airport and a water reclamation facility — all potential sources of PFAS contamination. The types of PFAS NMED has seen resemble firefighting foam, but there are additional PFAS chemicals in some private wells that don’t resemble firefighting foam, according to Kenney.
The Environment Department is taking more soil and water samples to find a more conclusive answer to the question of who is responsible for the contamination in La Cieneguilla and La Cienega. That knowledge would help the state find responsible parties who can help pay to clean up the groundwater plume beneath these communities.
In Curry County, a Clovis Dairy made headlines in 2022 when it had to euthanize thousands of cows because their milk had unsafe levels of PFAS. The groundwater in that area has tested for PFAS contamination as high as 26,000 parts per trillion, far over the EPA drinking water standard of 4 parts per trillion, according to Kenney. New Mexico and the U.S. Air Force are involved in ongoing lawsuits over how to clean up the PFAS contamination.
NMED began testing private wells and other drinking water sources in Curry County in 2019, according to Goretzka, and also offered free private well water testing to Curry County residents in September. The agency sampled 33 wells there in September.
The Legislature has also appropriated $12 million to bring a public water system to rural Curry County residents.
The EPA established legal limits for six types of PFAS in drinking water in 2023 that are set to go into effect in the next two to four years. NMED has issued grants and worked with 620 water systems to help them reach that drinking water standard. Roughly 2.6% of those systems are exceeding the federal standard.
This year the EPA proposed pushing out the timeline for drinking water requirements.
“These decisions at the federal level result in real harm to communities around the country,” Kenney said, pointing to the cost of mitigating PFAS contamination and addressing PFAS litigation. He estimates the state has already spent $25 million dealing with PFAS in Curry and Otero counties.
In recent years the EPA has also established reporting requirements for companies importing or making products that contain PFAS. On Monday, the agency proposed reducing those regulations.
“This Biden-era rule would have imposed crushing regulatory burdens and nearly $1 billion in implementation costs on American businesses,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.
Villegas is frustrated with the government response to PFAS contamination at every level, from the county to the state to the Department of Defense. Villegas has advocated for water filters to be provided, something the state is now doing.
For several years, he’s also asked local and state officials to provide his community with uncontaminated water, Villegas said.
“Take care of the community until we find the source and mitigation. Bring some water. Bring the water system, bring some water lines, or whatever. They refuse to do that for us,” Villegas said.
From roadways to classrooms, this New Mexico program is bringing women's history out of the shadows - By Isabella Volmert and Morgan Lee, Associated Press
On a recent field trip to view historical markers in New Mexico's capital city of Santa Fe, seventh grader Raffi Paglayan noted the range of careers and contributions made by the women featured on them.
Paglayan's favorite was Katherine Stinson Otero, a skywriter who was one of the first women to obtain a pilot's license in the U.S. After Stinson Otero contracted tuberculosis while driving ambulances in World War I, she moved to New Mexico and started a second career as a renowned architect.
"She seems pretty cool," Paglayan said with a smile.
Introducing New Mexicans to women from the state's history is the goal of a decades-long program that has put up nearly 100 roadside markers featuring the significant contributions of women from or with ties to New Mexico. Now the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program is branching out to create a curriculum for schools based on its research.
"It's just so essential that all students, not just female students, but every student has the ability to recognize and see the significance of the people that have done so much work to create what we have," said Lisa Nordstrum, the education director and middle school teacher who took Paglayan and her classmates on the field trip.
Correcting the record
The road marker efforts started decades ago. Pat French, a founding member of the International Women's Forum - New Mexico, a leadership and networking group, noticed in the 1980s that there were hardly any women mentioned in any of the state's historic roadside markers. In 2006, the group secured state funding to work with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to change that.
Over the years, the group visited individual counties and Native American communities, asking for stories about important women in their history. The research compiled biographies of dozens of women from precolonial times through the Spanish and Mexican territory periods, and into the time when New Mexico became a state.
Now those women's stories are displayed on 6-foot signs across the state and in an online database. While some honor well-known historical figures such as American modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico's first female Secretary of State Soledad Chávez de Chacón, many others feature local women whose stories have not been widely told.
For example, Evelyn Vigil and Juanita Toledo are remembered for reviving the Pecos Pueblo style of pottery in the 1970s, after the indigenous Pecos Pueblo population was decimated by years of disease and war by the 1890s, and the pottery techniques were lost.
"There is just a sense of justice about it," said program director Kris Pettersen. "These women put all this effort in and made all these contributions, and they were unrecognized, and that's just wrong."
Other markers are dedicated to groups of women, such as healers and the state's female military veterans. The collection notes that the history of the state cannot be told without recognizing the conflict that came with colonialization and the wars fought over the territory.
"They are not, however, the first women to take up arms and defend their homes and society in our region," the veterans' online blurb notes. "New Mexico is a state of culturally diverse people who have protected themselves over many centuries."
For now, the group has paused creating new markers, opting to maintain the current ones and focus on the educational mission.
From roadsides into classrooms
Over 10 years ago, Nordstrum had a revelation similar to French's: There was a lack of women in the standard state history curriculum. She stumbled upon online biographies from the marker program and started teaching their stories to her seventh graders.
In 2022, the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program secured state funding to hire Nordstrum to develop a K-12 curriculum from women's biographies.
"We have women that wouldn't be in any textbook," Nordstrum said.
The funding was renewed in 2024 with bipartisan support. One of the legislation's co-sponsors, Republican state Rep. Gail Armstrong, believes it's important for New Mexico residents, young and old, to understand how the world they live in was formed.
"History, good or bad, should not be changed. It needs to be remembered so that we don't make the same mistakes again and so that we can celebrate the good things that have happened," she said.
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The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.