CYFD Secretary Barbara Vigil — pictured when it was announced she would lead the agency — ordered an “in-depth system analysis” after the November 2021 child abuse death of a month-old boy in Valencia County. (Eddie Moore/)
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More than six months ago, the new Children, Youth and Families Department cabinet secretary ordered an outside review of the embattled agency’s response to child fatalities and critical incidents.
So far CYFD has refused to release the report, which was supposed to be completed by April 15.
The agency over the past 10 days has given different responses to journal inquiries seeking the document, first claiming “attorney-client privilege” and, on Friday, saying the report will be released after agency attorneys finish reviewing it.
State Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque, a retired lawyer and former deputy state attorney general, said she found CYFD’s response “puzzling.”
She questioned why the attorney-client privilege, which covers communications between a client and their attorney, would be cited since the outside review related to a factual investigation.
Matthews has been working with an informal group of lawmakers on proposed legislation aimed at increasing transparency at CYFD.
The independent review by Nashville, Tennessee-based Collaborative Safety LLC was to provide an “in-depth systemic analysis of critical incidents experienced by the agency over the past year, and include recommendations to reduce or eliminate critical incidents in the future,” according to a contract signed by CYFD on Jan 19.
In responding to a Journal records request, the agency on June 30 cited “attorney-client privilege” as grounds for withholding the report.
On Friday, the Journal again asked for a copy of the report and a CYFD spokesman issued a different response.
“CYFD is in the final stages of reviewing Collaborative Safety’s analysis of the department’s work – and to ensure its compliance with the confidentiality provisions of the New Mexico Children’s Code,” said public information officer Rob Johnson in an email. “CYFD anticipates completing that review in the coming days, and upon completion, the department will release the report.”
Exactly what information, if any, might be redacted from the report before release wasn’t specified.
“We look forward to sharing how CYFD is improving the lives of the children and families it serves by incorporating the recommendations of the report and embracing the safety-science approach it advocates,” he added. Matthews said she had welcomed the news an outside review was being conducted.
“I thought, ‘Well this is good,’ but why are the results not being shared? It was a factual investigation, it did not appear to me to be asking for a legal opinion.”
Matthews said some lawmakers have been concerned that CYFD has in the past cited the confidentiality provisions of the Children’s Code to protect the agency instead of those the law intended to protect – children and families.
CYFD Secretary Barbara Vigil ordered the “in-depth system analysis” after the Nov. 15, 2021, child abuse death of a 1-month-old boy in Valencia County whose mother one week earlier had called authorities to say she “feared for her children’s safety, that she may hurt them,” according to Valencia County sheriff’s officials.
The mother, Kiria Lynn Milton, who also has a 4-year-old son, subsequently underwent a mental health evaluation at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and CYFD permitted the children to remain at home in the care of their father, who planned to go out of town for work.
A week later, the infant was found dead in his bassinet. He died of blunt force trauma to his head and face. His mother is jailed awaiting trial on a charge of child abuse resulting in death.
After the death and criticism of CYFD’s handling of the case, Vigil said, “I think the people of New Mexico deserve an independent outside entity, with expertise in this area, to come in and help us assess what we’re doing, and whether we can improve it.”
Vigil, a retired state Supreme Court justice who took over the agency last October, pledged to make the outside consultant’s report public during a meeting with the Journal editorial board and reporters on Jan. 19.
The review, she said at the time, was “an effort on my part to really self-examine and see what we can do better to minimize the risk of child fatalities in New Mexico. So that process is ongoing. And we will have a report on that. And I’m happy to share it with you as well. … Some of this is hard, because it reflects, you know, maybe things that I wish we could do better, we would have done better … but it’s in the interest of transparency and accountability that I want to make change in this department.”
Under the $59,640 state contract, Collaborative Safety LLC was to review up to five child fatalities or high-profile incidents to develop “learning points,” conduct debriefings and a systemic analysis. The final report written, due by April 15, was to include an overview of findings and recommendations for improvement.
In response to a Journal request June 27 under the state Inspection of Public Records Act seeking the report, CYFD’s records custodian Kathleen Hardy responded that in accordance with a section of the records law, “which exempts from public inspection records covered by attorney-client privilege , and direction of Chief General Counsel Jeff Young, there are no responsive records available for public inspection at this time.”
Hardy didn’t respond to a Journal request for clarification as to whether the review would be available in the future.
Matthews told the Journal the results of the outside review would be of interest to state legislators.
“I think some of the members would absolutely want to know (what is in the review). This is an agency that has more than its share of high-profile tragedies. I am working with other legislators who are very, very concerned that the agency improve its work and that our children are better protected.”
Matthews said CYFD is “an agency that quite frankly needs to be more forthcoming, not in terms of a particular family or child, we understand that need to protect the privacy of people absent criminal charges being filed. But it’s a public agency and there’s a certain amount of scrutiny needed, particularly when you are caring for children and the safety of children is involved.”
She said one idea under consideration by legislators is aimed at improving the CYFD’s dissemination of data, such as the number of child maltreatment fatalities or near fatalities.
“Trying to find that information is really hard,” Matthews said. “It’s a measure of accountability of how well they are doing.”
Matthews acknowledged, “That there’s no question that doing the kind of work CYFD does is very difficult and sometimes you can’t fix all the things that are wrong with a family. But accurate reporting of the data is important for the credibility of an agency.”
“When you don’t share the information,” she added, “then there’s a tendency for people to think it must be an awful report. That’s where the public trust piece comes in, by being forthcoming.”
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