Jan. 4—A new lawsuit accuses the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department of failing to protect a 10-year-old boy with a history of abuse from an alleged sexual assault in 2022 by a teenager in an agency bathroom.
The suit alleges the agency knew the older child had a history of sexual assault but still failed to prevent the incident.
“Defendant CYFD … knew that the older adolescent was dangerous and particularly posed a threat to the young children that CYFD was keeping at its Albuquerque office instead of placing them in a home,” the suit states. “As a direct result of Defendant CYFD’s breach of duties, [the plaintiff] suffered physical harm, emotional distress, and mental anguish.”
The boy’s guardian ad litem, Alison Endicott-Quiñones, said the suit highlights the problems that emerge as a result of housing children in state custody in CYFD offices, a practice that’s happened hundreds of times in recent years when the department has struggled to find adequate homes for certain children.
Office stays commonly lead to further trauma for children and a higher need for care, she said, adding CYFD’s solutions — opening homes for boys and girls and launching a program to offer specialized training for foster parents on how to support children with greater needs — likely are insufficient.
“If CYFD had sufficient placements for the appropriate kids, and they were doing their job in terms of supervision … we wouldn’t be where we are right now with this lawsuit,” Endicott-Quiñones said in an interview.
CYFD spokeswoman Jessica Preston wrote in an email this week the department had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
“It would be premature to comment at this time. Once we have had an opportunity to review the claims, we will respond appropriately through the legal process,” she wrote.
The suit, which alleges violations of the state’s civil rights and tort claims laws, calls for CYFD to cease housing children in offices and instead provide them with “access to a safe and therapeutic home.” The suit also calls for compensatory damages for the boy’s injuries as well as other court costs.
In her experience working with children who have stayed in CYFD offices, Endicott-Quiñones said, it’s common for them to leave with greater problems than they came in with, due to exposure to other children with more significant behavioral health needs as well as staff who are stretched thin and struggle to resolve conflicts.
Endicott-Quiñones noted workers are often on duty during office stays as part of overtime assignments.
“There’s a lot of bullying; there’s a lot of peer pressure, and the kids — their stress increases, their behaviors increase because of what they are exposed to,” she said. “And then suddenly you have kids who otherwise would have done fine in a family getting more and more trauma as a result of their time in the office.”
The suit alleges the sexual assault occurred in December 2022. The boy was in CYFD custody after experiencing sexual abuse, exploitation and neglect in his biological family’s home, the suit says.
Because CYFD “did not provide him with a safe home to meet his needs,” he was staying in an agency office, where staff allowed him to be alone with the older child, leading to the assault in the bathroom, the suit alleges.
Preston could not say whether the older child faced criminal charges.
To curb the issue of housing children in agency offices, CYFD has turned to opening group homes in Albuquerque for children with greater needs, a solution the department has described as a middle ground between the optimal choice of placing them with families and having them stay in offices.
The agency also has touted an upcoming program known as Foster Care+, which would offer specialized training for foster parents to help them support kids with behavioral and mental health conditions as well as medical conditions.
Endicott-Quiñones said she has little faith in either option. She noted CYFD has had trouble recruiting foster parents. In 2023, the agency fell 61 families short of its goal to recruit 190 nonrelative foster homes, according to a report recently released by independent field experts charged with tracking CYFD’s progress toward compliance with a landmark settlement agreement in a civil case.
“These kids need to be in homes,” she said.
It was not clear exactly how often sexual assaults between children occur within CYFD offices.
The agency tracks critical incidents, which include alleged abuse or assault, 911 calls and other emergencies, but Preston said CYFD has not disaggregated them by category. She could not provide the number of sexual assaults among children in custody that have taken place in department offices in the past three years.
According to a report recently released by independent field experts, 52 total critical incidents were reported between July 1, 2023, and Jan. 5, 2024.
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.