CYFD still struggling with workforce, foster families, data shows

Dec. 10—New Mexico is not faring better than it was a year ago on some of the key problems plaguing its child welfare system, according to presentations given to lawmakers on Tuesday.

In particular, the state Children, Youth and Families Department struggled to make gains in recruiting resource and foster families and stabilizing its own workforce. The agency is also losing out on federal funds that would help it implement important prevention programs, Legislative Finance Committee staff told lawmakers on the committee.

Committee chair Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, noted the ticking clock Cabinet Secretary Teresa Casados is facing to turn CYFD around.

“Your days are numbered. There’s two years left in how much change you can make,” he said, apparently referring to the amount of time remaining in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s term. “And it’s really about fixing things from here on out.”

During her presentation to lawmakers, Casados acknowledged the challenges CYFD faces but said recent developments in some of her agency’s initiatives may help address those challenges.

“It is an incredibly difficult job, and we’re working really hard to make sure that we’re not only hiring, but that we’re putting in place initiatives for retention,” she said.

Staffing, foster family recruitment still a struggle

CYFD still struggles to maintain a stable workforce, particularly in its crucial Protective Services Division.

According to a report given to lawmakers, that division has fewer employees now than it did this time last year. The division’s employee headcount as of this month is 918, whereas December 2023’s headcount was 936.

Agency data shows 305 vacancies and over 1,100 full-time equivalent positions currently in the Protective Services Division, the most of any of the agency’s divisions. There are 638 vacancies and almost 2,300 full-time equivalent positions across the department.

Casados acknowledged CYFD’s challenges in hiring and retaining staff. But she said the agency is making strides in retaining its workforce and improving training for the employees it hires.

During the current pay period, CYFD implemented a 10% raise for licensed social workers, a move Casados hopes will encourage them to stick around. That raise, though, is temporary, running only through June.

The CYFD chief also said the agency has revamped its training for new employees, now including several weeks of online learning, virtual reality and other workshops before putting them into in-person training that ties their learning into practice.

“What we hear from many of the employees who have gone through training is that once they get … into the field after five weeks of training, they are not prepared and don’t understand how that relates to the work that they’re doing,” she said. “So we’re switching that around in the hopes that we’ll have better retention.”

New Mexico also continues to struggle to recruit enough resource and foster families to care for children taken into state custody.

Over 2,100 children are in the state’s care, according to CYFD data. But the agency has only 1,085 total resource and foster homes.

This year, CYFD set a goal of 265 new non-relative foster homes, according to an online dashboard. But agency data on Tuesday showed that since January, CYFD has licensed 124 new non-relative foster homes, less than half its goal.

In 2023, CYFD fell 61 homes short of its goal to recruit 190 new non-relative foster homes, according to a recent report by independent field experts tasked with tracking the state’s progress in a landmark settlement agreement.

And Monday night, Casados said 17 children slept in CYFD offices.

That number in particular concerned committee vice chair Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces.

“As we all acknowledge, it is unacceptable, it’s dangerous, it’s causing … some of the challenges that are affecting kids and affecting staff,” he said.

Casados says ‘Foster Care +’ will help

Casados said the agency has a plan in the works intended to help such children, who are often in CYFD offices because they have greater needs and finding families to meet them is difficult.

CYFD soon expects to roll out its own version of an Oklahoma program known as Enhanced Foster Care, which CYFD says would equip families with the training and resources to house children with higher needs.

Casados said New Mexico’s program, called “Foster Care +,” hopes to see its first cohort of families by mid-January to early February 2025. She told The New Mexican the agency currently has about five families interested in joining the program.

Reimbursement rates for Foster Care + will be higher than those of standard foster families, but Casados said the agency has not yet determined by how much.

For years, New Mexico has failed to get approval of an application for a federal Family First Prevention Services Act plan. That program allows states and tribal governments to receive federal reimbursements for an array of services for children eligible for foster care who can remain at home with those services, or foster children who are pregnant or parenting, including mental health and treatment, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and parent education.

Though it has submitted plans for approval more than once, New Mexico is one of the few states in the country without a plan in place, according to Tuesday’s LFC report. It was not immediately clear Tuesday why previous plans were not approved.

“That would be a real opportunity to draw down federal funding [to] implement prevention services,” said committee analyst Rachel Mercer Garcia.

Casados said the agency resubmitted its plan to the federal government last week, after several drafts and reviews over the last year.

“We’re incredibly hopeful that that plan will be approved, hopefully very, very soon,” she said.

Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.

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