Problems at CYFD can’t wait

Fixing what’s wrong with the beleaguered Children, Youth and Families Department requires an urgency that has been lacking for many years.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham used an executive order nearly a year ago to reorganize the department and create an advisory council charged with recommending broader CYFD reforms. Yet the council is not fully staffed — two of the seven members have left — and no recommendations to improve the agency have been forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary-designate Teresa Casados told lawmakers last week at a Senate Finance Committee that she remains 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 changes that need to be made,” Casados said. “But that’s 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.”

In many ways, that’s basically a variation of what Casados’ predecessors have said for years, if not decades. But if an examination of CYFD over its history tells us anything, it’s this: Good intentions and high-minded words don’t translate into effectiveness.

If there’s to be any hope for CYFD — and that’s a big if — it must come through simple math. The only way for the agency to work is to hire enough people to make it work.

The new Together We Thrive website (togetherwethrivenm.org) has a dashboard detailing the basics of the agency. Its vacancy rate is a whopping 25.8%, with 4,352 pending investigations and 1,982 children in state custody, according to the latest website figures. There aren’t enough workers to handle the load, and the burden on existing staff must be overwhelming.

The website breaks down the vacancy rate into percentage by division and practice area. In permanency planning, for example, the latest figures show a 35.37% vacancy rate for workers charged with managing the cases of children in foster care and their families. Obviously, that is a barrier to getting the job done.

The worker shortage isn’t CYFD’s only problem, of course, but it is illustrative of how difficult it will be to stabilize the place. The horror stories of children left in dangerous homes or kids sleeping in CYFD offices don’t happen in a vacuum. Clearly, educating and training more social workers takes time. Hiring enough people to staff juvenile justice centers takes time. Finding qualified juvenile probation officers takes time.

Time is something vulnerable children can’t afford. But funding the needed help is something a state flush with cash can do. And could’ve done yesterday.

GOP Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley calls the agency “unfixable” because of its problems. “Untenable” is more like it. CYFD is paying millions in cash settlements because of children who have died while under agency care. The Legislative Finance Committee report card for CYFD contained this grim statistic: New Mexico consistently is among the top six states for repeated mistreatment of children in the 12 months after an initial allegation. That means the agency supposed to protect children, for myriad reasons, isn’t doing its job.

Casados told lawmakers she had asked the governor to refrain from legislation during the 30-day session so she can determine what the agency truly needs, begging the question: Exactly how long is New Mexico supposed to wait? Casados, formerly the governor’s chief of staff, has been in charge since April, first on an interim basis and then as its permanent head.

Bottom line: The time for reassessments has long since passed. What the administration and Legislature should do is demand immediate action, both from agency leaders and from themselves, in the form of a massive funding injection, one that creates more and better hires while, presumably, lessening the liability in lawsuits that have already cost the state dearly.

In the meantime, reform proposals from past legislative sessions — including allowing more case information to be revealed and establishing the office of a child advocate, or ombudsman, deserve to be heard.

A 30-day legislative session isn’t enough time to fully address CYFD’s problems. But a call to get things done, now, can be accelerated by starting with the basics — treating the agency like the critical care patient that it is. And while administrative reforms are needed and can be hammered out, money to recruit and pay workers, as well as to support foster families and group homes more robustly, is the spark that can create needed momentum.

Time is up — both for the kids under CYFD’s care and the elected officials entrusted to see that it works.