By ESTEBAN CANDELARIA
The Santa Fe New Mexican
A bill aimed at closing gaps in data collection by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department that have spawned public outcry about the agency’s transparency in recent years is making its way through the Roundhouse.
House Bill 203, sponsored by Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, calls for CYFD to implement an information system that provides hourly backups of records produced or received by workers by the beginning of next year.
The measure also would require the agency to keep records produced by CYFD workers for 24 years after they have left the agency, and for employees to conduct agency business only on department-issued devices.
In a written statement, Dixon said the bill would help provide oversight for and protect children in state custody.
“House Bill 203 would make clear that CYFD workers must retain and back up records from all electronic devices, including cell phones, computers, and tablets,” she wrote. “… This becomes especially critical any time a child is harmed, so that we can understand what went wrong and learn how to better protect our children going forward.”
HB 203, which has yet to be heard by a committee, would help address underlying gaps that fueled a controversy in 2021 in which CYFD workers used a private messenger app called Signal to communicate for their jobs.
The app allowed messages to be deleted manually or regularly, and prompted a public outcry, with critics arguing Signal afforded CYFD too much secrecy, and the ability for the agency to dodge the state’s open records law.
The agency’s secretary at the time, Brian Blalock, resigned amid that controversy, as well as one arising from allegations CYFD retaliated against workers who questioned a no-bid contract with a California company to implement a new computer system.
Since then, a new data system is already in the works at CYFD.
Agency spokesperson Andrew Skobinsky wrote in an email the agency has contracted with Chicago company Redmane Technology to implement a new child welfare information system known as New Mexico Impact. Under the contract, Skobinsky said the new system would meet the archiving and data backup requirements in HB 203.
“NM Impact replaces an outdated, cumbersome system with a streamlined, centralized case data platform,” he wrote. “This innovative solution will enhance efficiency and data accuracy while reducing administrative burdens, allowing our team to focus on what matters most — providing compassionate, high-quality support to those who need it most.”
The new system would also help address general, enduring challenges CYFD has faced with producing good and timely data.
Plaintiffs in the Kevin S. lawsuit have long noted issues with the quality of data kept by CYFD, including struggles to provide real-time numbers for the purpose of monitoring the state’s progress.
The Kevin S. case, originally brought in 2018 against the state by more than a dozen foster children, yielded a settlement agreement laying out several goals for reform in New Mexico’s child welfare system.
In explaining its struggles with producing quality data, the state has pointed to the outdated, ineffectual system currently in use known as the Family Automated Client Tracking System, or FACTS.
That system, according to filings from recent arbitration proceedings in the Kevin S. case, is not equipped to store documents or other large files and relies on a data entry procedure that does not easily yield quality data about cases.
New Mexico Impact would provide real-time data and make tracking cases easier for workers. Skobinsky said New Mexico Impact is tentatively expected to be implemented in December.
“This is being done to allow caseworkers and investigators to improve reporting, documentation, data accuracy, and more time to work with the children and families in our care and custody and less time behind a monitor and keyboard updating multiple systems,” Skobinsky said.