New Mexico CYFD Fails to Make Progress in Remedial Goals

“Children are still frequently being exposed to serious harms while in CYFD’s care, the experts’ findings indicate.

Nine children died and 10 nearly died while in state custody last year[2025], the report states. Meanwhile, 65 children from Aug. 18 to the end of the year [2025] were involved in 201 “critical incidents,” which include instances in which 911 was dialed or other harm was alleged.

Of those, 124 occurred in offices, with 17 involving serious injuries, suicide attempts or allegations of abuse, neglect or other harm.

“CYFD offices are clearly not safe places for children,” Ford wrote.

The experts reported CYFD filled at least 11 behavioral health specialist positions designed to provide care and supervision to children in office stays in Bernalillo and Doña Ana counties as of Dec. 31.”

“However, critical incident reports included allegations staff antagonized children and escalated situations rather than providing crisis management, or indicated staff were afraid of kids staying in offices, exacerbating the “harmful narrative surrounding the needs of children in foster care,” the experts wrote.

“The predominant behavioral management tool staff use to manage children placed in CYFD offices remains to contact law enforcement,” they added. “While there are times when contacting law enforcement could be appropriate, this routine practice places children in state custody at risk for the criminalization of adolescent behaviors and the result of system involvement.”

“Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last month banned CYFD from allowing children to stay in offices, setting a March 1 [2025] deadline for the agency to end the practice. CYFD said at the time 15 children were in offices, adding it had already stopped accepting new children in those settings.

The experts noted CYFD told them most of the children who had been placed in offices within the preceding month had been moved to different settings, including foster and group homes and a new transitional facility in Las Cruces staffed by department behavioral health specialists.

CYFD reportedly acknowledged the Las Cruces facility is not designed for children to stay long term. Still, leadership described it as a “better placement option for youth than government offices, and represented that its opening allows for the immediate end of office placements in the southern part of the State,” the experts wrote.”

The judge in the New Mexico lawsuit “required the state to recruit 265 new nonrelative foster homes, make 244 new placements in treatment foster care and take steps toward establishing a more robust system for after-hours care and maltreatment investigations.

CYFD recruited just 122 nonrelative foster homes last year and it approved and licensed 121 treatment foster care placements, meeting those goals by a little less than half.

As of Dec. 15, just 20% of primary caseworkers had caseloads compliant with standards of their field, and by Dec. 31, the agency had filled 22 emergency response positions out of its capacity of 35. Staff also reported that although they received new employee training promptly after being hired, the training did not properly prepare them for work, and they requested more role-specific preparation.”

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“The state did improve in an important area: ensuring children entering state custody receive timely wellness checks to verify their health and other indicators.

During the first half of 2025, New Mexico struggled to complete such visits by its requirement of 30 days from when a child enters state custody. From January to June, the state completed only 23% of its required well-child visits on time.

From July to November, that number shot up to 77%.”

Experts find CYFD failed to make progress in many Kevin S. remedial goals
[Searchlight New Mexico 2/6/26 by Esteban Candelaria]

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