This is the third story in a series on child welfare in New Mexico.
Attorney Therese Yannan had represented children in state custody for many years before she sued New Mexico in 2018. She was seeing a pattern of resources just not being available.
鈥淎 court can鈥檛 order services that don鈥檛 exist. It was impossible to get appropriate services,鈥� said Yanan, who works for the Native American Disability Law Center.
Attorneys Bette Fleishman and Sara Crecca encountered the same obstacles. So the three of them joined forces to go to court. Fleishman is executive director of Pegasus Legal Services For Children, which is a plaintiff along with Yanan鈥檚 organization. Crecca is her co-counsel.
Together they joined 14 foster children in the class action suit seeking to improve the child welfare system. The suit was named for one of the children, Kevin S.
鈥淲e needed to do something bigger to change the situation. Because kids were getting harmed then and they're getting harmed now,鈥� said Fleishman.
Crecca said the faults in the system have been well-documented for decades. But the Kevin S. team .
There was no strong system to ensure that temporary placements or foster homes were stable. That meant children were sleeping in state office buildings.
Also, the state was failing to meet the medical and mental health needs of children. And there was a complete failure to implement any sort of trauma-informed practices for those in state care.
鈥淟etting them rot in the office, just sitting there, no school, no attempt to engage them, no placement. That all felt kind of new. The outcomes we were seeing were getting worse, more dangerous for kids, violating all kinds of state and federal laws that existed,鈥� Crecca said.
, who were in foster care at the time, agreed to become main plaintiffs and were chosen to represent the diversity of the state whether it was race, sexual orientation, or even geography. Together they would also represent the many more kids experiencing the same inhumane conditions.
Crecca said that what drove a lot of the suit was one question: Where are the foster parents?
鈥淲hat we were doing to these kids to re-traumatize them was just astounding. They would come in even more traumatized than previously,鈥� said Crecca.
Current Cabinet Secretary for the Children, Youth and Families Department, Teresa Casados, explained staff turnover is a huge problem nationwide in child welfare.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 do the work that鈥檚 expected without the people to do it. I can鈥檛 lower caseloads if I don鈥檛 have trained people to give the cases to,鈥� Casados said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 recruit more foster families if I don鈥檛 have workers to go out there and do the recruitment. So, when they鈥檙e stretched too thin, foster parents don鈥檛 feel supported.鈥�
Casados said another contributing factor to retention issues is people don鈥檛 realize how difficult this work is for caseworkers and social workers alike, especially with the lack of support from outside the agency.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing this work because their heart tells them to do this work. Not because of the paycheck that they get, I guarantee that,鈥� she said. 鈥淐an you imagine being there and something horrific happens? You鈥檙e with that family when that tragedy happens. And then you read the next day about how horrible you are and how you dropped the ball and how you didn鈥檛 do your job.鈥�
One way CYFD has tried to address the staffing shortage was to and focus on recruiting caseworkers who may have a degree in social work, psychology, or education, but are not licensed.
Right now, out of the 250 employees with a degree in social work at CYFD, only 129 are licensed.
Fleishman said the other issue was New Mexico sending many foster kids to out-of-state facilities. She said she was able to visit every single facility that the kids she represented had been placed in, but a lot of attorneys can鈥檛 necessarily do that.
鈥淭hey're just throwing these kids out of state and kind of dumping them there,鈥� Fleishman said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way for the parents to visit in a meaningful way. They did not check the facility before the kids were sent there. They didn鈥檛 even make sure they were even licensed or had any write-ups.鈥�
to be placed in foster care than their white peers, according to a national study, which cited issues with systematic bias.
This led Gov. Michelle Lujhan Grisham in 2022 to that codifies the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). That law also would amend the New Mexico鈥檚 Children Code to include specific provisions for Native children in custody like affirming a child鈥檚 tribal affiliation, working with families to reunite children with their tribe, and providing tribal courts the option to assume jurisdiction.
Yanan said under the Indian Child Welfare Act, there鈥檚 an imperative when helping Native children.
鈥淢aintain placement with Native families so that they maintain those ties is essential,鈥� said Yanan.
The Kevin S. parties reached a settlement in 2020, and it was a blueprint, Crecca said. It was the first step in building a foundation before jumping into the harder problem solving.
鈥淲e felt so incredible about this agreement, about what was in store for our clients,鈥� Crecca said.
The outlined several goals: creating a trauma-informed system, keeping foster children connected to their own culture and families, meeting the requirements of the federal , and delivering timely access to medical appointments.
Yanan said not having these resources isolates foster children from their families and communities.
鈥�Foster homes across the board are a huge issue and remain a huge issue,鈥� Yanan said. 鈥淎nd so these kids get sent to these facilities and service providers because they don鈥檛 have home settings as in foster care for these kids and they don鈥檛 have community-based services that these children need.鈥�
But for Casados, it has been frustrating stepping into implementation of the agreement because of the established timelines for reaching certain goals and targets.
鈥淭here鈥檚 just not enough time to do that and time is what is really what is needed to fix this system,鈥� Casados said.
Casados was first appointed by Gov. Lujan Grisham as interim cabinet secretary in April of 2023. A few months later, the governor appointed her the permanent secretary. , 鈥淭eresa Casados has left an indelible mark at CYFD over just a few months鈥he has already delivered results, and I have no doubt the momentum will continue from here鈥�.
Since the 2020 settlement, however, Crecca said the excitement has stalled, leading to new dangerous outcomes for foster youth.
鈥淚mmediately this administration turned its back on its agreement and has done that time and time again,鈥� said Crecca.
The settlement agreement named to oversee implementation of the outlined goals.
In updates from and , they pointed to 鈥榙angerous鈥� conditions including high caseloads, inadequate numbers of family-based placements for foster children and problems with CYFD鈥檚 on-call shift system not having appropriately trained staff.
鈥淓very year their report tells us what our clients can tell you, which is not only has it not changed, it鈥檚 gotten worse. One of their warning shots to the defendants was that your system is in a state of chaos鈥� Crecca said.
The experts also that are mandated by law to happen within 30 days of a child entering into state custody.
Casados said one problem is the state鈥檚 health care worker shortage and that CYFD is working alongside the Healthcare Authority to bring in out-of-state organizations to provide services.
鈥淚 know as a normal citizen, if I were to call right now to my physician and say, 鈥業 need to come in for my sore throat鈥�, they probably would say, 鈥榳e can see you in a couple of weeks鈥�. And so, we face the same situation when we try to get appointments for these kids,鈥� Casados said. 鈥淧roviders are in short supply and they have other clients that they are taking care of and sometimes those appointments can鈥檛 be booked within 30 days.鈥�
The Healthcare Authority, formerly the Human Services Department, declined to comment.
When it comes to the office stays, Casados said there are numerous foster families available, but they lack the training to deal with very challenging cases.
鈥淲hat do we need? Is it just more families? And the answer is no. It鈥檚 more appropriate families鈥� said Casados.
She said children have been coming into the system with complex problems that demand intensive support, and that means office stays to supervise them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 less than 1% of the population that we serve, it鈥檚 a small number,鈥� said Casados, 鈥渂ut even one child that doesn鈥檛 have appropriate placement is not ideal for us; it鈥檚 not how we want to run our system.鈥�
In 2023, the state and the plaintiffs鈥� teams came together to create what鈥檚 called a to help the state get back on track.
Crecca said that some of the kids represented in the lawsuit have aged out and are angry and disappointed. She added that in her experience, CYFD is a system shrouded in secrecy and lacks transparency.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a confidentiality law that protects families from having their identities revealed when they鈥檙e involved, but really, the agency has used it for many years to shield its own negligence, its own wrongdoing, and its own corruption,鈥� said Crecca.
And she said the in New Mexico鈥檚 foster system are paying the price.
鈥淭hese young people are incredible, and they deserve our investment because they鈥檙e human beings,鈥� said Crecca. 鈥淟eaving by the wayside an entire generation of children in foster care is a terrible idea for our society.鈥�
And Casados agreed.
鈥淚 believed then and I still believe that the issues that were raised in the Kevin S. case and the outcomes and the targets that they implemented have to be met for a better child welfare system,鈥� she said.
However, Fleishman, Yanan, and Crecca all said they have seen no justice in the system for their many clients and when these young people age out of care, they become survivors.
This story was also funded in part by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
