Latest news with #YouthandFamiliesDepartment
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Report: New Mexico ranks last in the nation for child well-being, again
Jun. 11—New Mexico has once again been ranked the worst state in the country for child well-being, according to the newest annual Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count data book. The study, which utilizes data from 2023, focuses on four categories: economic well-being, education, health and family and community. The most recent study marks the fifth consecutive year in which New Mexico has earned the 50th spot. Among the four categories, the state came in last for education and family and community; 49th for economic well-being; and 46th for health. Those results reflect a marked lack in progress over the five years since the state received a 2018 landmark ruling that its public education department was violating students' constitutional rights with the quality of instruction provided — and a subsequent May ruling that it had not done enough to improve. The Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) remains marred in controversy. The state also has one of the lowest average median household incomes in the U.S., and while the state has the second-richest sovereign wealth fund in the nation and has, in recent years, markedly spent more on education, those efforts have yet to yield discernible dividends. New Mexico's lackluster rankings don't surprise Daniel Crespin, a father of eight who lives in the International District and works part-time as a plumber, allowing him to spend more time at home caring for his children. "My middle schooler is reading at a lower grade level, and they're not doing anything to push them in school," Crespin said. He added that the cost of childcare would be burdensome to the family. "It's really hard to get help out here, and there are some programs that try to do something, but the funding is not there. It's always going somewhere else," he said. Spending time at North Domingo Baca Park with her 5-year-old daughter Isla Vigil and the girl's father Isaac Vigil, Amanda Alire expressed a similar sentiment, noting that her 13-year-old son, who's enrolled in Santa Fe Public Schools, is reading at a "fourth-grade" level. She added that she works two jobs and north of 70 hours a week to provide for herself and her children, whom she had been raising alone — Vigil was in prison until earlier this month. But, as a result, her income puts her above the poverty threshold. "I don't get any other support, I don't qualify for any assistance," Alire said. "There's nothing that would help because they say you make too much money, even though you're taking care of two kids by yourself with one income." Noting that the state has passed a slew of policies directed at improving education and childhood well-being since 2023, nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children — which partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the report — believes the state's ranking could change in the coming years. They also think the state's circumstances and demographics don't warrant a comparison to others. "Other states have vastly different circumstances than New Mexico, whether that's their population, their racial and ethnic makeup, their just general structure," Gabrielle Uballez, executive director of the organization, said in a May interview. "We like to look at comparing New Mexico to itself." House Democrats cited several bills approved during this year's 60-day legislative session that could benefit New Mexico children, including a $10.8 billion budget bill that directs over $100 million to transitional housing and the state's Early Childhood Education and Care Department. They also cited the creation of a new state Medicaid trust fund that could help the state weather federal funding decreases, legislation expanding childcare assistance for prekindergarten children and established an outside oversight office to review complaints involving CYFD. "I'm a big believer in data, data is always good. It helps us improve. I'm really proud of all of the work we've done over the last several legislative sessions," House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said in a phone interview. "Those are all good things, and I think that eventually we'll see those returns. Having said that, I do think that there's more work that remains to be done." Some New Mexico lawmakers question if the state's increased spending and new policies are yielding results. "We have had unprecedented investments in early childhood education, we've had the Zuni lawsuit and Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, and even this year, the judge says we are not making improvements on educational outcomes," Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, said in a phone interview. "It's time for parents to be in charge of their kid's education and for dollars to follow students. We are so far behind the curve ... we can look to any state and do better." She also expressed support for school-choice programs, noting declining enrollment in public schools and saying that "poverty is an excuse" and that "if poverty is keeping children in a failing school system, all the more reason to pass school choice." "The courts agreed the families who felt like the public education system was failing them went to court, and the courts agreed that New Mexico is failing to adequately educate students. The remedy was to give money to the system that was failing students," Dow said. "It's time to stop funding the same system, and one size will never fit all."
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NM marriage license fees more than doubling this summer
A woman signs a marriage license at the Doña Ana County Clerk's Office's Romance at the Rotunda event on Feb. 14, 2025. (Photo courtesy the Doña Ana County Clerk's Office) Money can't buy you love, but it can get you a $55 New Mexico marriage license this summer. New Mexico Marriage license fees will more than double next month from the current $25 fee thanks to Senate Bill 290, sponsored by Sen. Linda Trujillo (D-Santa Fe) during the legislative session held earlier this year. Out of the total new charge, the county clerk's office keeps $20; another $20 will go to the state's Children's Trust Fund; and $15 will benefit each county's general fund. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the bill on April 8 and the fee increase goes into effect on June 20. According to the fiscal impact report, the fee increase is estimated to bring in an additional $195,000 in revenue each year – including about $32,500 for the Children's Trust Fund, which currently receives most of its revenue from special license plate sales. The fund is administered by the Children, Youth and Families Department's Family Services Division. Trust fund grants are awarded to 'community-based organizations' throughout the state working to help prevent or treat child abuse and neglect. Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin told Source NM that the marriage license fee has not increased since the 1990s, and previous efforts to pass an increase failed. 'This is my seventh year that I'm starting [as county clerk]. We have been pushing for an increase that was, I think, reasonable, but also would be impactful for each of the counties in terms of their funds,' López Askin said. However, she noted: 'It's not just about increasing revenue. It's also about collectively supporting children across the state.' New Mexico's license fee will still be on the lower side, compared to neighboring states such as Texas and Arizona, which both charge over $80, according to the Doña Ana County Clerk's Office. Doña Ana County Chief Deputy County Clerk Caroline Zamora said many people from El Paso, Texas travel to her office for marriage licenses because of the cheaper fee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
Torrez's CYFD investigation will fail if it leaves people out
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez says he's going to launch 'a comprehensive and wide-ranging investigation' into how the Children, Youth and Families Department fails children. Allow me to save him some time. I can just write the report now — and I'll throw in the news story that will follow. The story will go like this: The beleaguered Children Youth and Families Department and its embattled leadership are plagued with a shortage of foster parents and high turnover among demoralized, overworked and understaffed caseworkers, according to the blistering conclusions in a scathing report released today. We know this is what the report will say for a couple of reasons. First, almost (but not quite) all of that is true. Indeed CYFD's performance is every bit as awful as Torrez says it is. Second, it's what scathing reports on embattled child welfare agencies all over the country always say, particularly when those issuing the reports show no interest in real solutions. Real solutions have been in short supply in New Mexico. Instead, there's an endless appetite for rearranging the deck chairs on the child welfare Titanic: Create an ombudsman office! Take the agency out of the control of the governor! Move some functions to another agency! None of that ever works. Real solutions involve a single urgent first step: Viewing those who are investigated by CYFD and who lose their children to foster care as fully human — and worth talking to. That's not for the sake of the parents; it's for the sake of the children. Because it's the families needlessly investigated and the children needlessly taken who overload the system. That leads to tragedies ranging from children warehoused in hideous institutions or makeshift spaces to children in real danger overlooked in their own homes. It's not easy to rethink the stereotypes. We know the horror stories about brutally abusive or hopelessly addicted parents; but they're nothing like most of the parents caseworkers see. In 2022, the most recent year for which data are available, 78% of cases in which children were thrown into foster care in New Mexico did not involve even an accusation of sexual abuse or any form of physical abuse. Nearly two-thirds did not involve even an accusation of parental drug or alcohol abuse. In contrast, more than two-thirds involved 'neglect.' Sometimes that can be extremely serious; more often it means the family is poor. Indeed, CYFD admits that in 19% of cases, it took away children because of issues involving housing. So it's no wonder study after study finds that in typical cases children left in their own homes typically do better in later life even than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care. In part, that's because of the enormous emotional trauma inherent in tearing a child from everyone loving and familiar. But there's also the high risk of abuse in foster care itself. Multiple studies find abuse in one-quarter to one-third of family foster homes; the rate in group homes and institutions is even worse. But when you overload the system with children who don't need to be there you create an artificial 'shortage' of foster homes — so more children are institutionalized, with all the horrible outcomes New Mexicans have seen. At the same time, all those false allegations, trivial cases and poverty cases overload workers, leaving them less time to investigate any case properly. That's almost always the real reason some children in real danger are missed. Real solutions demand doing more to ameliorate the worst hardships of poverty, and providing families with high-quality defense counsel; not to get 'bad parents' off, but to provide alternatives to the cookie-cutter 'service plans' often dished out by CYFD. But understanding that requires that first basic step: treating parents as fully human. Attorney General Torrez doesn't seem ready for that. As Source NM reported: Torrez's agency is also calling on current and former case workers, foster families, and youth impacted by the system to come forward with information … He's right to do that. But notice who's missing. He expresses no interest in hearing from birth parents who have lost children to the system because their poverty is confused with neglect. He shows no interest in hearing from the lawyers who represent them. He shows no interest in reaching out to anti-poverty organizations to ask them what they see when their clients interact with CYFD. He shows no interest in speaking to civil rights groups about whether they see all races treated equally when they encounter CYFD. That's a shame. Because, to paraphrase Torrez, I think we have all grown tired of waking up and hearing about another grandstanding politician holding another news conference to announce another investigation of CYFD that will solve nothing — because it avoids the problem at the root of all the rest: The only way to fix foster care is to have less of it.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
New Mexico Attorney General launches investigation into CYFD
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Condemning the governor and her New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department's secretaries, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced on Tuesday he is launching an investigation into CYFD. He said the agency won't be up front about incidents that have left children under state supervision injured or dead. Story continues below Trending: ABQ family defies all odds after their fetus received a rare diagnosis Breaking: Pope Francis dies at 88 Crime: Repeat International District murder suspect facing new charges The attorney general said he launched the investigation after a teen killed himself while in state custody, but his investigation doesn't stop there. 'His death is, I think, for me, a turning point in terms of how we're going to address the failures at CYFD,' said Attorney General of New Mexico Raúl Torrez. Torrez announced Tuesday that the New Mexico Department of Justice will be opening an investigation into the recent death of a 16-year-old boy Jaydun Garcia, who was living in a congregate facility overseen by CYFD. 'Sadly, he took his own life in a facility that we know is not in the best interest of traumatized, abused, and neglected children,' said Torrez. Torrez shared frustration at the lack of information the agency releases to the public in cases like this. 'More needs to be done in terms of shining a light on what is happening inside that agency.' He argued that confidentiality concerns do not justify the level of secrecy. 'There's a way to protect their privacy interests without shielding the misconduct,' added Torrez. CYFD has been under scrutiny for children sleeping in offices as the state faces a lack of foster parents, where there have been reports of children being assaulted by workers and other residents. For years, the agency has been plagued by high-profile cases of injuries and deaths involving children who were supposed to be under their supervision. The state paid out millions of dollars last year for the wrongful death of 4-year-old James Dunklee Cruz in 2019. Even after CYFD found the boy with a black eye, bruised genitals, and other injuries, a CYFD supervisor kept him in his mom's care. Two months later, James was beaten to death by a man they were living with. In 2022, CYFD removed kids from a home in Texico where they were found to be chained to beds and in dog cages, but still the kids were placed back in the home and eventually removed again. Several women were arrested in that case. The AG's office said his investigation will be wide-ranging and take a comprehensive look at the events leading to cases like these. 'I think we have all grown tired of waking up and hearing about another child who's been injured, another child who's been hurt, another child in state custody who's been killed.' The investigation is expected to last several months. The results will go to the newly created Office of the Child Advocate, which was created during the recent legislative session to independently oversee CYFD under the umbrella of the state Department of Justice. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham's Office sent KRQE this statement: As the state's attorney, Mr. Torrez has authority to investigate CYFD or any other state agency, and the governor's administration always cooperates and shares any information requested. CYFD's own investigation into the tragic suicide of a teenage boy is already well underway, and the agency will share its findings with the Department of Justice. It should be noted that just last month, Gov. Lujan Grisham signed into law a new Office of Child Advocate in the attorney general's office that confers him with authority to investigate CYFD's operations. She also authorized $650,000 to establish the office in its first year. However, as she stated in her March 21 executive message, the governor is concerned that this new office could be weaponized to intimidate CYFD and its staff rather than to prioritize the safety and well-being of children in the state's care. She reiterates this concern following the AG's unfounded, blanket criticisms of CYFD at a news conference today. All public officials with jurisdiction over CYFD should commit to ensuring that oversight is conducted with the utmost integrity, without prejudgment or political motivation. Michael ColemanCommunications DirectorOffice of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham CYFD sent KRQE this statement: The death of any child is tragic, and we mourn this terrible loss and send our condolences to the family and friends of the youth who died. CYFD is disappointed that Attorney General Torres has decided not to collaborate with the Department on this important investigation. CYFD's own investigation began immediately, and we will share our findings with the Department of Justice. As Secretary Casados has said on numerous occasions, she would much prefer to work with the attorney general in a solution-focused manner, rather than via a press conference, for systemic change to New Mexico's child welfare system Andrew SkobinskyDirector of CommunicationsOffice of the Secretary | Children, Youth & Families Department Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Yahoo
A teenager takes his life in foster care
Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, 16-year-old Jaydun Garcia took his own life at a makeshift home for youth who lack foster placements. Jaydun was the second of five brothers and had a baby sister. He was very close to his siblings, those who knew him said, and a close friend to many kids in foster care. 'He was always building us up, like helping us all,' said Jacie, a friend of Jaydun's who lived with him for months in the Albuquerque office building of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, where case workers have often housed kids who don't have foster homes available to them. This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. 'Hearing that he's gone, it just like broke us, and it took a piece out of us,' she said. Jaydun and Jacie both belonged to a tight-knit group of foster youth — teens who had spent much of their lives in foster care and had spent years held in group facilities. Jaydun loved to draw and was an athletic kid who loved basketball, especially the Los Angeles Lakers — a person whom friends would seek out when they needed someone to talk to. For this story, Searchlight spoke to six people with direct knowledge of the circumstances of Jaydun's death. Most of them asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak with the media, or because of sensitivities related to the case. 'He was always building us up, like helping us all,' said Jacie, a friend of Jaydun's. 'Hearing that he's gone, it just like broke us, and it took a piece out of us.' In an email, CYFD communications director Andrew Skobinsky wrote that the department could not comment because of confidentiality laws. 'We are only authorized to release information when it is determined that abuse or neglect caused a child's death,' he wrote. 'Accordingly, no further information can be provided.' Jaydun's death comes after years of promises by CYFD to stop housing its foster youth in group settings and to provide them adequate mental health care — promises that were made as part of the 2020 settlement of a class action lawsuit that claimed the state's child welfare system was 'locking New Mexico's foster children into a vicious cycle of declining physical, mental and behavioral health.' Now, half a decade later, CYFD has failed year after year to meet its commitments to those promises, according to independent monitors. Instead, it has housed children with serious mental and behavioral health needs in youth homeless shelters and its office buildings, where they have been sexually assaulted, injured by armed guards and exposed to fentanyl and other drugs. 'When I go visit a client who is living in these settings, I see their mental health declining sharply,' said Sara Crecca, an Albuquerque-based youth attorney who was co-counsel for the plaintiffs of the class action suit. Amid mounting criticism from attorneys, legislators and advocates, CYFD in June 2024 began moving youth from its office complex to a new building: a former Albuquerque halfway house built for girls transitioning out of juvenile detention. It was in that building that Jaydun died last weekend, discovered in the bathroom by his roommate, another teenage boy. The death in itself is beyond tragic, friends and attorneys say — a loss made all the more painful by the fact that CYFD had continued to house Jaydun and other youth in congregate care despite barrages of warnings that such housing was a 'clear and urgent safety risk for children,' particularly those who were suffering mental crises, with staffing shortages sometimes leaving kids with nowhere to turn. 'They're supposed to be the one people that we trust, the ones that we go to when we have problems,' Jacie said of CYFD. In the wake of Jaydun's death, nobody from the department had reached out to Jacie to offer therapy or counseling, she said. 'If they really cared, they would be on top of getting us therapy. They would be on top of us having a home — a forever home, an actual home with parents' love — not removing us, not putting us in shelters, not putting us in the office. We're not getting that.' Still, the events of last weekend felt unexpected to those close to Jaydun. 'CYFD had promised him a lot of support' during the last year, a close acquaintance of his told Searchlight, asking that they not be named because of the sensitive nature of the case. 'He seemed to be optimistic about his future.'
