Gov. bans overnight office stays for children in CYFD custody

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday ended all overnight stays for abused and neglected children who, for lack of a foster home, have been temporarily housed in a state Children, Youth and Families office.

The executive order, effective March 1, has already led CYFD officials to stop allowing new office stays as youth still living in offices are relocated appropriate placements, the governor said.

“Children who have experienced trauma deserve safety, stability and dignity — not sleeping in offices,” said Lujan Grisham in a statement. “This executive order makes clear that New Mexico will not accept anything less than appropriate care for children in our custody.”

The state promised to severely limit the practice with the settlement of a civil rights lawsuit by 2020 but the number of children and youth staying in CYFD offices surged to 709 in 2024, more than double the number from 2023, according to a report last fall from two independent monitors.

Last Thursday, acting CYFD Cabinet Secretary Valerie Sandoval told a legislative committee that 20 children had stayed the night before in offices around the state. Currently about 2,000 children are in state custody.

Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, on Monday described the governor's executive order as a "Band-Aid," saying it does nothing to create additional foster homes and provide crisis support.

"An executive order alone doesn't create placements for kids who have nowhere else to go," said Dow, who is proposing legislation during this year's 30-day session aimed at expanding services and treatment for children in state custody in several New Mexico counties.

That bill, House Bill 66, would appropriate $2.5 million over a three-year period, but it's unclear whether it will be taken up during the session that ends Feb. 19.

The governor, in her executive order, stated that children slept in state offices after emergency removals, when agencies couldn’t place sibling groups together, when treatment facilities discharged them without available placements, or when older youth refused other options.

Her order acknowledges that such arrangement aren't appropriate or "conducive to a child's wellbeing."

With a new leadership team that includes a national expert on child welfare issues, the agency has been doubling efforts in recent months to recruit foster families and alleviate shortages of social workers and other child protective service workers.

Two national child experts retained by the state to gauge compliance with what is known as the Kevin S. legal settlement reported last November that 33% of the children or youth in offices had to stay there after leaving a foster care placement, and nearly a quarter landed there after being removed from their homes due to suspected abuse or neglect. More than 60 children were discharged from an acute hospital stay only to be moved directly to a CYFD office because there was no other place to take them. 

Sandoval has now expanded provider partnerships and established transitional programs to allow for the ban. CYFD stopped new office stays Jan. 16, with relocations of children expected to be finished by March 1.

 “This executive order reflects the standard our children deserve and the responsibility we carry as a department,” Sandoval said in the governor's press release. “We have taken decisive steps to stop office stays, and we will continue working with providers, caregivers, and partners across state government to ensure every child in our care has a safe and appropriate place to stay.”

“This is about accountability and urgency,” said Lujan Grisham. “The work is already underway, and this order ensures it continues — not just now, but into the future.”

The settlement, which required reforms in care, treatment, placements and support, came after attorneys for 14 foster children and several child welfare agencies sued CYFD in 2018 for violating the civil rights of children in state custody.

As one of the settlement requirements, CYFD had until Dec. 1, 2020 to ensure that no child under 18 will be placed in any hotel, motel, out-of-state provider, office of a contractor, or state agency office unless there were "extraordinary" circumstances necessary to protect the safety and security of the child as documented in the child’s record and approved by the cabinet secretary or director of protective services.

For the first time since 2021, the monitors report, none of the children's office placement documents showed the required approval of Sandoval's predecessor Teresa Casados.

Journal Reporter Dan Boyd contributed to this story.