CYFD

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 Children, Youth, and Families Department’s Fostering Connections program was created several years ago to extend foster care services to youth aging out of the system. Now the legislature is looking to expand services and eligibility.

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.

The state of New Mexico was served with a class action lawsuit in 2018 by 14 foster children and two advocacy organizations to better the child welfare system. The parties reached a settlement agreement in 2020 which is now known by the name of one of the plaintiffs, Kevin S. KUNM explores how the suit began and how it has progressed over the last six years in the third part of a series.

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.

The Children, Youth, and Families Department has come under fire for having kids sleeping in the agency’s offices due to a lack of foster care placements. KUNM spoke with Secretary Teresa Casados on how CYFD plans to address this issue through its Foster Care+ program and her hopes for the current legislative session.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham outlined her perspective on the state of New Mexico affairs and her priorities for the 2025 legislative session on its opening day in her State of the State address Tuesday.

There have been several recent instances in which foster youth have been verbally threatened and forcibly handled by private security guards while staying in CYFD’s Albuquerque office building, a Searchlight investigation found. The youth involved in these altercations — teenagers, many of whom have spent most of their lives in the foster care system and have experienced repeated mental health crises — are among the most traumatized children in CYFD custody. They have not been accused of crimes, but are nonetheless guarded by armed private security while living in the agency’s office.

Children, Youth, and Families Department Sec. Teresa Casados told lawmakers Tuesday that, while the department is improving, it needs more funding to make real progress.

The Children, Youth, and Families Department is embroiled in scandal that has left substantial frustration, especially as lawmakers questioned the department’s efficacy in the last legislative session. Wednesday Legislators heard updates on child maltreatment and workforce shortages and possible solutions to address these longstanding challenges.