A Senate Finance Committee meeting Thursday on child well-being focused heavily on the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department as Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley, (R-Elephant Butte), questioned CYFD Cabinet Secretary Teresa Casados, center. Human Services Secretary Kari Armijo, left, Health Secretary Patrick Allen, right, and Early Childhood Education Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky also spoke at the hearing on a collaborative effort among their agencies. Courtesy/Daniel J. Chacón/The New Mexican

By DANIEL J. CHACÓN 
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Almost a year ago, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham created an advisory council to recommend reforms for the state’s troubled child welfare agency.

Since then, two of the seven members have stepped down, and the council has yet to issue any proposals to improve the Children, Youth and Families Department.

The resignations from the Policy Advisory Council and its lack of formal recommendations sparked harsh criticism of the agency Thursday during a presentation on the future of CYFD and child well-being in New Mexico.

Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley, (R-Elephant Butte), led the charge.

“The governor’s laid out her priorities for public safety and a lot of those are gun bills that are proposed,” she said during a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. “I’m going to point out to New Mexicans that more children have died in the last year … under CYFD than have died by gun violence.”

The agency disputed the senator’s assertions.

“We believe Senator Brantley’s data is inaccurate,” Caroline Sweeney, a CYFD spokesperson, wrote in an email. 

Department of Health data “shows there were 40 children who died by firearms in 2022,” wrote Sweeney, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s former press secretary. “There were 4 deaths at CYFD in 2022, and in 2023, there were 2 deaths. None of these deaths at CYFD were gun related.”

Sweeney wrote the department did not have a final number of children who died by firearms last year, but it’s believed to be “dozens.”

Diamond Brantley said the Lujan Grisham administration has opposed much-needed reforms and asked Cabinet Secretary-designate Teresa Casados whether the agency is proposing any legislation during this year’s session. Casados said it wasn’t.

“I hope you understand the frustration from legislators in the last year that there have been no suggestions by CYFD on how to fix it,” Diamond Brantley said, adding “we cannot trust the agency to fix itself.”

“That is not a reflection on you, madam secretary,” Diamond Brantley told Casados, who left her job as the governor’s chief operating officer to lead the agency when former Secretary Barbara Vigil resigned in April. “This is a failing agency that if there were anybody who could come in and fix it, I honestly believed it could be you. It is an unfixable agency.”

Sweeney wrote Casados agrees the status quo isn’t working and leaders are striving daily to “implement new policies and procedures, and develop training.”

However, she wrote, “The continued denigration of the dedicated, hardworking employees at CYFD shows little regard for the people doing good work in difficult situations every day.”

Casados appeared before lawmakers alongside three other Cabinet officials: Health Secretary Patrick Allen, Human Services Secretary Kari Armijo and Early Childhood Education Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky.

Casados told lawmakers she was excited about the future of CYFD.

“I know that sounds a little scary to people because mostly we’re talking about the state of disrepair and the changes that need to be made,” she said. “But that is not the only thing that we’re focusing on at CYFD. We really are looking at, you know, making changes to address the needs of families across the state.”

The four secretaries said they’re taking a collaborative approach to supporting the state’s families.

Groginsky lauded the administration’s “family-centered approach.”

“The governor expects us to collaborate,” she said. “… It’s not one agency that’s going to work in silo and help solve the very long-standing challenges that families in our state face all over.”

But CYFD, which serves some of the state’s most vulnerable children, continues to generate the most scrutiny amid highly publicized cases of abuse and neglect, some of which have resulted in death and multimillion-dollar legal settlements — and have prompted calls for reform and additional oversight.

Diamond Brantley questioned when the agency’s Policy Advisory Council would issue a plan or recommendations and criticized its progress.

Casados said the panel has been “mostly focusing on kind of the reorganization” of CYFD.

The agency is looking at “redefining what their roles are and creating subcommittees” focused on specific areas, such as child well-being, she added.

The advisory council, which is down two members, would have a report with recommendations to present to lawmakers “probably within the next quarter,” she said. 

One new council member has been been appointed to fill a vacancy, and a second is being vetted.

Vigil, who was appointed to serve on the council after she resigned as Cabinet secretary — a move the Governor’s Office called a “transition” at the time — is among the departures.

“When I accepted the appointment in April 2023, I affirmed that I would be able to serve for six months and that time has come,” she wrote in a resignation letter to the governor Oct. 24, adding the resignation would be effective Nov. 1.

The other member who stepped down is Arika Sanchez, identified in a news release last year as director of policy and advocacy for the nonprofit NMCAN, which focuses on improving policies affecting children and youth in foster care.

“I was actually unaware that that board wasn’t fully functioning,” Diamond Brantley said. “I was just waiting for the report … on what sort of policy needs to be adopted.”

Sweeney wrote the original executive order creating the Policy Advisory Council doesn’t require a report or suggestions for legislation.

Diamond Brantley raised other concerns, specifically with the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA program, which she said is only “voluntary.”

“CARA is such a wreck,” she said, adding a Legislative Finance Committee report revealed more than 43 percent of women sent home after giving birth to a substance-exposed baby “didn’t even know they were on a CARA program.”

Diamond Brantley asked Casados whether CYFD is asking the Legislature for a policy to “mandate a CARA program for drug-exposed babies.” Casados said it wasn’t.

“We’re hopeful that we can get a universal screening,” Casados said. “We’re working with Department of Health to determine if, in fact, that is a screening that we can require of all infants born in the state of New Mexico, regardless of it’s in a hospital or other circumstance.”

Diamond Brantley noted Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, (D-Albuquerque), is proposing a constitutional amendment that proposes to move CYFD from the governor’s Cabinet and place it under a new, three-person independent commission.

Casados said she asked the governor “if we can refrain from legislation [during this year’s 30-day session] to give us an opportunity to truly determine” what the agency needs.

With the lives of children at stake, Diamond Brantley said time for such a review has run out.