Embattled New Mexico child welfare agency outlines changes

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The embattled state agency that oversees child welfare in New Mexico said Friday it is retraining its front-line investigators and creating new critical review teams as part of an effort to once again overhaul a department that has struggled with child fatalities and critical incidents.

The latest measures were prompted by an outside review of the Children, Youth and Families Department and by mounting public criticism. The department had kept the report under wraps for months after it was completed by a national firm despite public record requests.

The 27-page report was released Friday as the agency detailed its initiatives.

Department Secretary Barbara Vigil, a retired New Mexico Supreme Court justice, said she wanted to immediately find ways to improve the system when she took over last fall, noting that the agency deals with 20,000 families every year.

“This report highlights many of the challenges we are already addressing and further illuminates opportunities for improvement — and how we tackle them,” she said in a statement.

The agency also underwent massive reforms in 2014, when then-Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, rolled out policy changes and directives changing the way child abuse cases were investigated in New Mexico. Still, problems have persisted under Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration.

Maralyn Beck, founder and executive director of New Mexico Child First Network, called the current number of child abuse fatalities a public health crisis, saying immediate action is needed. She noted that the latest report comes to the same conclusions as a handful of other reports, task force recommendations, court rulings and other memos published over the last five years.

While advocates agree that the culture at the agency creates less than ideal working conditions, Beck and others said they’re concerned that half of the latest recommendations are aimed at making improvements after the next critical incident or child death, rather than taking steps to prevent such an outcome.

Christi Boomer, a foster parent and advocate, said multiple administrations have made promises to make improvements.

“Things have only continued to worsen for the children in this state,” she said.

Nashville, Tennessee-based Collaborative Safety LLC was hired in January to provide a systemic analysis and make recommendations to reduce critical cases experienced by the agency over the past year.

Vigil ordered the review following the November 2021 death of a 1-month-old boy in Valencia County who had blunt force trauma injuries to his head and face. Sheriff’s officials had said the boy’s mother one week earlier had called them to say she was concerned that she may hurt her children. She now is facing charges.

The review looked at turnover within the agency, high caseloads, a culture of fear among employees and the limits of an assessment tool that is used by case workers to score whether a child is in a safe environment.

According to the review, training conducted by an independent agency placed a strong focus on teaching about the tool, rather than focusing on its practical application. In some cases, staff were using the tool but had never been trained and there was inconsistency in how the tool was being used around the state.

The review said turnover and workload create a “reinforcing feedback loop” in which stress increases the likelihood that staff will leave their positions, subsequently increasing the workload for the remaining workers.

“It is understood that there are no quick fixes within the child welfare system and careful thought and planning must be considered prior to their implementation,” the report said.

Since January, the department said more than 240 investigators and other workers have been retrained on practices that include building strong relationships between case workers and families.

All front-line investigators and supervisors also will receive specialized training over the next two months.

As for the new critical incident teams, they will be charged with interviewing families, law enforcement, doctors and others to better understand how the system worked or didn’t and how it can be improved to prevent future incidents.