12-03-2025
CYFD reform package advancing quickly; other bills make slower progress
As the Roundhouse rounds third base on this year's legislative session, lawmakers are racing to bring home a few measures aimed at reforming New Mexico's troubled child welfare system.
The lead runner seems to be Senate Bill 42, a measure unveiled late last week that bundles multiple other bills addressing child welfare issues and which is already headed to the Senate floor after unanimously clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday evening.
Other notable measures — such as House Joint Resolution 5, which would completely overhaul CYFD's leadership structure, and House Bill 5, which would establish a new oversight office for the agency — have moved slower. With time left in the session dwindling, it's unclear what will make it through.
'Given the length of time that we have left, it becomes more difficult as each day passes,' said Rep. Eleanor Chávez, D-Albuquerque and a sponsor of HJR 5.
SB 42 marks an apparent compromise between Democrats, Republicans and the executive branch. CYFD and the governor have thrown their support behind the bill after being at odds with legislators over other proposals this session, including HJR 5 and HB 5.
While the child welfare reform package leaves out large-scale oversight or leadership reforms, it would implement priorities laid out by the Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during her State of the State address: namely, moving management of the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, out of CYFD and holding families accountable to following through with care plans for substance-exposed children.
CYFD spokesperson Andrew Skobinsky said in an email the New Mexico Department of Health, which would take over CARA, is 'better equipped to manage the healthcare and medical implications of children born substance-exposed/dependent.'
Republican lawmakers and others have also criticized state law for not requiring families with babies exposed to substances to follow through on care plans prescribed to them. SB 42 would bolster the state's response to those families, requiring CYFD to assess whether a family that does not follow through with a care plan is able to keep that baby safe.
Skobinsky said that could lead to an abuse and neglect investigation and, possibly, the child being taken into CYFD custody.
SB 42 also incorporates other reform efforts, including one requiring identifying information to be released when a child dies or nearly dies while in the care of a foster family under investigation by CYFD. Another would require the agency to enact a plan pursuant to a federal plan allowing states to use more dollars on prevention services.
Though the federal Family First Prevention Services Act was passed in 2018, CYFD has yet to have a plan adopting the legislation be approved by the federal government. The agency resubmitted its plan late last year, and hopes to hear back in April.
Other measures
While SB 42 has backing from leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as from the governor and CYFD, HB 5 and HJR 5 have less broad support.
HB 5, which seeks to establish an Office of the Child Advocate under the New Mexico Department of Justice tasked with monitoring the services CYFD provides to children and receiving complaints about issues at the agency, has faced opposition from CYFD. The agency has argued that while it welcomes oversight and accountability, HB 5 is not the way to do it.
Still, the bill, which was identified by House Democrats before the start of the session as a priority for the caucus, has garnered some Republican support. House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said HB 5 and SB 42 are examples of everyone 'finally on the same page and trying to get something across the finish line.'
'This administration has had six years to fix this, and I think that everyone finally [has] come to the position of, 'They need help, and they need lots of ideas and lots of cooks in the kitchen,' and hopefully we get an answer this year,' Armstrong said in an interview. 'If we don't, it's on the majority — it's not on me.'
HB 5 cleared the floor last week and awaits passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee. That said, a similar iteration of HB 5 failed in 2023.
But HJR 5, which passed out of the House Judiciary Committee the same day HB 5 and other CYFD-related measures did, has lagged behind its peers and is still awaiting passage by the full House.
The resolution is ambitious, asking lawmakers and voters — who would also have to approve HJR 5 should it clear the Roundhouse — to remove CYFD from the Governor's Cabinet and install a commission that would hire a director to manage the agency.
In addition to stiff opposition from the executive branch, the resolution also drew concerns from field experts tasked with tracking the state's progress in the landmark Kevin S. settlement, reached after over a dozen foster children sued New Mexico for failing to fulfill its duty to kids in state care.
The experts argued in a letter child welfare systems in other states actually benefited from moving away from commission-style governance structures and that keeping CYFD under the purview of the governor better facilitates communication between state agencies.
Chávez, however, sees the resolution as a way for the Legislature to take matters into its own hands, noting that several years have passed since the Kevin S. settlement was reached with little to show for them.
'That agency has had some extreme turnover related to politics,' she said. '... The other piece, too, is that — and I don't want to say that any of the secretaries don't work hard — but they don't have the child welfare experience that's needed to guide this agency not just through the current struggles but also provide the kind of leadership that that expertise and experience would provide.'
