From discord to agreement, progress reported at CYFD

Just 14 months ago, attorneys for a group of foster children contended the state Children, Youth and Families Department’s compliance with agreed-upon reforms was so dismal, the agency should be placed into receivership.

Four years of “broken promises,” they argued in December 2024, were putting abused and neglected children at great risk of harm.

Lawyers for CYFD and the state countered that it was much easier to “stand on the outside” and criticize those working every day to serve children in state custody.

“It is easy for critics and those with a financial interest in this case to describe CYFD as a building on fire,” stated attorney Eric Loman back then.

Last week, the intense dispute of recent years seemed dissolved.

Both sides issued a first-ever joint news release announcing progress, such as the high percentage of children now receiving medical visits within 30 days after entering custody. There’s also a new agreement on a way forward, including the creation of a foster parent advisory board that will report back by Dec. 31.

“I think everybody wants to have a more collaborative relationship … realizing that we all have the same goals here,” said Loman, an Albuquerque attorney representing the state in the settlement in 2020 of the so-called Kevin S. civil rights case, which sought to improve the well-being of the 2,000 or so children in state custody each month.

“We are at an important crossroads,” Tara Ford, an attorney for the foster children plaintiffs, announced Monday. "The work is not finished and so we are really, really pleased that the state has come together to work with us to continue to move forward.”

The progress comes after three CYFD Cabinet secretaries have come and gone since 2019, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham putting a new leadership team in place in September.

That included former New Mexico Health Secretary Kathyleen Kunkel, a seasoned adviser who helped oversee the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Brenda Donald, who came to CYFD as chief operating officer after serving in leadership roles in the Maryland Human Services Department and as director of Washington, D.C.’s child welfare agency.

“We want to continue to work together to make meaningful and long lasting improvement to the child welfare system,” Ford said, “changes that will sustain beyond the end of the current administration. As we’ve seen in recent years, changes in leadership can greatly impact the state’s progress.”

The latest agreement, hammered out by both sides, comes after more than a year of oversight by an arbitrator, Albuquerque attorney Charles Peifer.

In January 2025, Peifer rejected the receivership idea but instituted two remedial orders with short timelines to resolve issues, such as directing CYFD to seek adequate legislative funding for caseworkers and case aides.

Peifer, at a Monday meeting, congratulated both sides on the latest agreement.

“I think it is significant,” he said. “I think it is significant in large part because it shows a return to the collaborative efforts to improve the system for all kids.”

The agreement “also recognizes the significant progress that the state has made,” Peifer told the group, “particularly in the area of well-child checks.” Based on recent reporting, compliance is as high as 80%, he said. The state is required to conduct the checks within 30 days of taking a child into custody.

The progress in that area was “very much was based on very concentrated effort by senior officials at CYFD and HCA (the state Health Care Authority) that produced real, real results…,” Peifer said.

As of March 1, Lujan Grisham ended the yearslong controversial practice of housing children taken into state custody at CYFD offices because of a lack of foster homes.

CYFD and the HCA, also a defendant in the Kevin S. case, have committed to expanding the types of home-based services for foster children, building out foster care and adopting a model of enhanced foster care that provides additional training, supervision, support and care.

Recently, CYFD had 51 foster children in a group home shelter or setting; 47 in a treatment facility or hospital setting; and 16 foster children were living in small family-run community homes, said an agency spokesman.

In addition to responding to foster family concerns, the foster parent board will recommend strategies to improve resource family training, the licensing process and respite opportunities, among other issues.

As to caseloads, the latest agreement states that by July 1, at least 50% of all types of caseworkers will have caseloads that comply with set caseload standards.

New Mexico consistently ranks among the top six states for repeat maltreatment of abused or neglected children occurring within 12 months of the initial allegation, according to the state Legislative Finance Committee. In the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year, the state’s reported rate of repeat maltreatment reached almost 16%, almost twice the national average.

The repeat maltreatment rates are often a reflection of the success of CYFD’s intervention and prevention efforts with families whose children have been deemed abused or neglected, the LFC has stated.

“These changes in the field are going to take some time and we want to say that employees at CYFD have been carrying a very heavy load, even as they strive to provide safety net services to children and families in the child welfare system,” Ford said.

Asked about what will happen to the reform efforts after Lujan Grisham leaves office Dec. 31, CYFD spokesman Jake Thompson told the Journal, “CYFD’s leadership team is working hard every day to make systemic and durable changes — recruiting, hiring and training more professional staff; reducing caseloads to give families more attention; improving the array of services and care for children in our care; recruiting more foster parents; and more — that will last well beyond this administration.”

Ford said the plaintiffs, which include Pegasus Legal Services for Children, Disability Rights New Mexico and the Native American Disability Law Center, will engage the new administration and provide information and expertise. The state is responsible for paying the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and costs along with the defendants' attorneys' fees and costs.

“Plaintiffs are concerned that if new leadership is not prepared to assume its responsibilities promptly, the parties risk undermining any progress made,” Ford told the Journal on Friday. “On behalf of the children in State custody, we want and need the State to be successful."