Let’s Talk New Mexico, 3/6/25, 8am: New Mexico’s Children, Youth, and Families Department has undergone decades of instability leading the agency to struggle protecting the most vulnerable youth.
Public officials in the state are feeling an urgency for reform.
Governor Michelle Luhjan Grisham, in her State of the State address, prioritized the need for child welfare reform. She pitched ideas like establishing an independent Child Protection Authority to oversee CYFD resolves issues faced by those impacted by the foster care system, appropriating more funding for rural health care and behavioral health expansion, and tax credits for foster parents or grandparents raising grandchildren.
However, lawmakers have communicated through the proposed state budget that there’s been years of insufficient action on CYFD’s side, leading to a distrust. CYFD is seeking $437 million in recurring funding for fiscal year 2026. But House spending proposal has a relatively flat operating budget for the agency. A spokesperson for the New Mexico House of Representatives detailed that within HB 2, lawmakers have made significant investments in non-recurring special appropriations that includes roughly $40 million to address systemic challenges faced by the department, inclduing $10 million annually for the next three years to hire 101 additonal case workers, and funding to establish a child welfare training academy. However, a spokesperson for CYFD told the Santa Fe New Mexican the discrepancy is over $94 million, when including one-time pots of money.
This also comes on the heels of new arbitration findings for the Kevin S. settlement agreement, originally brought on by 14 foster youth against the state, alleging inappropriate care. Progress towards meeting that agreement has stalled out over the last five years. The arbitrator, Charles Peifer, found that children in the custody of CYFD are subject to “irreparable harm.” Peifer’s findings led to new deadlines for the state, like hiring initiatives to lessen professional burnout, recruiting more foster families, and meeting the original mandate of a child receiving a “well-child check” within 30 days of a child entering into state care.
Peifer’s overall opinion in the arbitration order was that in order to meet the new deadlines that would lead to compliance with the original target outcomes of the settlement, the Legislature must fund change.
On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll discuss how the legislative session is shaping up in terms of child welfare reform and how the implementation of the Kevin S. settlement agreement hinges on legislative cooperation. What would you like to see from lawmakers on child welfare reform? Email letstalk@kunm.org, leave a voice message by clicking the link below, or call in live Thursday morning at 8.
GUESTS:
- Teresa Casados, Secretary, New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department
- Sara Crecca, Attorney and Co-Counsel, Kevin S. plaintiff’s team
- George Davis, former chief psychiatrist CYFD, Kevin S. plaintiff’s team
- New Mexico Rep. Meredith Dixon (D-Bernalillo)
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