New Mexico lawmakers are proposing major reforms to the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) following growing concerns about the troubled child welfare agency.
House Democrats are proposing a three-member commission to oversee CYFD, greater transparency, expanded subpoena power for the Office of the Child Advocate, body cameras and a ban on group living arrangements for foster youth under 12.
The proposals largely follow 50 recommendations from the New Mexico Department of Justice and come after reports that CYFD staff allegedly dropped a foster teen at the U.S.-Mexico border and instructed him to walk alone into Ciudad Juárez.
