Group homes could help with CYFD placements

Under multiple New Mexico governors and numerous Cabinet secretaries, child placements by the Children, Youth & Families Department have resulted periodically in death or serious injury to the child.

Most of the public discussion of this problem has centered around the possible reorganization of the department, the possible increase in the number of its employees or proposed additional training and accountability for some parents.

These may be desirable reforms, but they do not address what may be a major problem. When CYFD makes an unsatisfactory placement of a child, or continues an unsatisfactory one, it may be because no good alternative is available.

If this situation frequently occurs, the state should finance such alternatives. In group homes well-trained and very wellpaid staff could supervise, and perhaps live with, small numbers of children who cannot be safely placed. Some placements might be for days or weeks, and others for years. A trial providing group homes could start with a small number of such homes in the areas where unsatisfactory placements are most frequent.

Operating these group homes statewide would be expensive, but New Mexico currently has huge surplus revenues. Lawsuits, settlements and judgments for wrongful death and abuse are also expensive.

The cases involving children’s deaths receive news coverage, but they must be the tip of the iceberg. For each death there likely are many more unpublicized instances of serious abuse not resulting in death. For every reported trial and judgment there must be many settlements that receive no news coverage at all.

New Mexico has assumed the responsibility for addressing the placement of these unfortunate children. If the state’s actions or inactions result in children’s deaths or abuse, and if there is a solution that might prevent some of the cases, the state has a moral obligation to try it.

DICK MINZNER Former state representative and Cabinet secretary

Albuquerque