OPINION: House Republicans are committed to long-overdue reforms at CYFD

I am honored to serve as the House Republican whip, a leadership role that allows me the opportunity to share with my colleagues the insights and lessons I learned during my years in state government.

Having served as the deputy Cabinet secretary for the Department of Veterans Services for over nine years, I have seen how state government can work effectively to make the lives of New Mexico’s veterans better. Sadly, throughout my career, I have also witnessed how state government can fall far short of protecting our most vulnerable populations.

Besides continuing our efforts to assist veterans, House Republicans are committed to bringing long-overdue reforms to our dysfunctional New Mexico Children, Youth & Families Department. This department continues to fail in its duty to protect children who are victims of abuse by adults who are unable to treat them with love and respect.

The problems at CYFD are long-standing, but the most frustrating aspect is despite the Legislature providing the necessary funding, the Lujan Grisham administration does not seem to be making any real progress in fixing the department’s shortcomings.

According to the Legislative Finance Committee, CYFD had more than 26% of its staff positions vacant as of April 1, 2024, which is nearly the same number as in April 2023. Equally troubling, the annual staff turnover rate among protective service workers was 32% during early 2024, which was only a slight improvement to the turnover rate of 36.6% in 2023.

The backlog of child abuse investigations has been a huge problem and, as of January 2024, CYFD reported 2,290 overdue investigations and a total of 4,490 outstanding protective services investigations. The combination of insufficient staff and thousands of unfinished abuse investigations results in numerous lawsuits from harmed individuals. According to LFC, CYFD has settled nine such lawsuits in 2024 for a total of $12 million, and another $6.8 million was paid out in settlements in 2023.

Even more disheartening is the governor’s lack of cooperation with the Legislature in implementing needed reforms. In fact, legislators were informed during the recent 30-day session that the governor did not want any CYFD reform bills passed so the new Cabinet secretary could have more time to make changes.

How much longer do our abused children have to wait for the governor and her revolving-door Cabinet secretary position to get their act together? Is her nearly six years in office not enough time?

It’s past the time for both the governor and the Legislature to work together to make needed reforms at CYFD. There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on studies that identified required reforms and legislators with experience in the child welfare arena have also proposed many valid solutions to rebuilding CYFD. In other words, it’s time for both the executive and legislative branches to start listening to the experts and get something done.

Among the much-needed reforms include: 1) CYFD must initiate better relationships with other state agencies, such as the Early Childhood Education & Care Department and the new Health Care Authority, to ensure proper services are provided to those in need; 2) The current policy of allowing substantiated child abusers to be reunited with their biological children must be repealed and eliminated; and 3) Create the Office of Child Welfare or appointment of an independent third-party entity to ensure procedures are in place to truly stop abuse and neglect.

The most important reform, however, is a renewed commitment to protecting our most vulnerable children and holding those charged with their care accountable when they fail to do their job.

Alan Martinez, of Rio Rancho, is the Republican candidate for District 23 in the New Mexico House of Representatives. The current House minority whip faces Democrat Frank Smith in the Nov. 5 election to represent the Rio Rancho-based district.