CYFD protection of children at 'serious risk,' experts say

Two national child welfare experts who warned last fall of serious problems within the state Children, Youth and Families Department cite new evidence that there is now “serious risk” to the safety of children and CYFD staff under deteriorating conditions at the agency.

The Jan. 26 letter from the two “co-neutrals” monitoring CYFD’s compliance with a legal settlement comes as CYFD Cabinet Secretary-designate Teresa Casados is to appear before a Senate committee on Wednesday considering her formal appointment to the post.

The experts are urging CYFD leadership to take extraordinary, urgent action to stabilize conditions at the agency, including addressing an “unsafe” backlog of more than 2,000 child abuse and neglect investigations. They also found a lack of trained staff and crushing caseloads for investigators of maltreatment complaints.

“In sum, the agency must begin acting like there is in fact a crisis that threatens children’s safety and compels new, urgent, and barrier-breaking activity,” wrote Judith Meltzer of the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and Kevin Ryan, of the Public Catalyst agency.

Both are paid by the state to assess whether CYFD is complying with the terms of the Kevin S. settlement aimed at improving conditions for children in state custody.

Their seven-page report states that data collection and recent interviews with CYFD employees across the state show little progress has been made since they conducted site interviews four months ago.

Among their concerns:

• As of Jan. 26, the seven CYFD investigators in Bernalillo County were carrying more than 40 investigations each, including two employees who reported caseloads of more than 120 referrals. Three investigators had left CYFD days before the visits from the co-neutrals, leaving 376 investigations to be reassigned to other staff, including supervisors and managers. Many of those already manage unreasonably high caseloads.
• A backlog of more than 2,000 pending abuse or neglect investigations in CYFD’s Metro and Northeast New Mexico regions exists. Some cases date back to the first half of 2023. In one office, CYFD staff reported numerous investigations pending in which children have “never been seen by CYFD even after the agency determined that a report of alleged abuse or neglect warranted investigation.”
• Abused or neglected children are staying in CYFD offices in Roswell, Las Vegas and Albuquerque, a practice that has occurred consistently for more than a year. CYFD staff reported being mandated to work shifts to supervise the children staying temporarily in offices, but they are not always prepared to handle children with serious emotional, mental and behavioral issues.
• Some CYFD offices are using temporary worker or contracted aides to help staff supervising of children in offices, but “it does not appear these staff have been provided with adequate training on trauma, behavior management and medication management, or how to de-escalate behaviors when conflicts or crises occur.”
• In Roswell, CYFD staff frequently respond by calling law enforcement and transferring children to hospital emergency rooms.

The agency, under Casados’s leadership, has been reorganizing in part to better offer services to at-risk families. She instituted a hiring freeze in mid-2023 to assess what positions were needed in what areas of agency.

But the co-neutrals found a lack of community-based services to support families and treat children. And in the pursuit of more foster families, or resource families, CYFD has failed to focus on retaining current resource families.

The co-neutrals said after last fall’s assessment, they hoped they would see “evidence of improvement.” Instead, what they heard and observed “was to the contrary. We heard about deteriorating conditions and crisis situations in most of the offices we visited.”

Sara Crecca, an attorney who is part of the Kevin.S settlement implementation team, said the report shows the state must, under the settlement, recruit and train an adequate workforce, build evidence-based community mental health support for children and families, ensure an adequate number of foster placements, and build relationships with tribal governments to support Native children in foster care.

“Our foster children and youth cannot wait any longer,” she added.

The 2018 Kevin S. lawsuit, settled out of court by the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, sets out various reforms for foster children in New Mexico.