child wellbeing

A new podcast focused on the well-being of New Mexico’s children and families is launching this weekend with a live public recording.

The new KIDS COUNT Data Book from New Mexico Voices for Children shows the state has made progress and that those investments may help it weather uncertainty from the federal government.

Last Thursday, five guns were found at three different high schools across Albuquerque, just two weeks into the new school year. So why are children feeling the need to bring firearms to school?

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released their annual Kids Count Data Report Monday. New Mexico remains last in child wellbeing and ranks at or near the bottom for several other crucial categories like education and health. KUNM Taylor Velazquez has more on the challenges that persist for the state’s kids and families.

New Mexico’s child welfare system has struggled over the decades to provide appropriate resources to foster children, ultimately leading to lawsuits. Now two nonprofits are working together to help close the gaps and provide essential services to foster families and state agencies.

An estimated 40,000 New Mexico children were raised by grandparents or a relative besides their parents in 2024, according to the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department. A bill in the legislature would create a pilot program to assist these kinship caregivers.

The Kevin S. lawsuit , originally brought by 14 foster children against the state of New Mexico, has been settled for almost five years. But even with corrective plans, change has stalled out.

Yesterday we heard about the origins of the Children, Youth, and Families Department, and the state’s decades of struggle to provide care for New Mexico’s most vulnerable children. CYFD improved for a time under a consent decree. But advocates say since then those gains have gone away. KUNM picks up the story in the second part of a series.

New Mexico has ranked consistently near the bottom when it comes to child well-being. The Children, Youth and Families Department, which is supposed to protect the most vulnerable children, has also battled scandals, secrecy, and staffing instability for decades. In the first of a series, KUNM looks deeper into the legacy of these longstanding challenges and how they affect families in the foster care system.

Leadership at the new—and only—youth detox in the state say they will begin taking patients as young as 14 years old in the next few weeks. The facility at Serenity Mesa is just the latest in a string of accomplishment and growth for a non-profit organization that started out of one family's struggle with substances.