{"id":34617,"date":"2023-04-16T17:41:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lujan-grisham-makes-leadership-change-at-child-welfare-agency\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:19:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:19:29","slug":"lujan-grisham-makes-leadership-change-at-child-welfare-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lujan-grisham-makes-leadership-change-at-child-welfare-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Lujan Grisham makes leadership change at child welfare agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham discusses legislative accomplishments on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, in Santa Fe with the signing of a bill to shield abortion providers from related prosecution, professional disciplinary action or extradition attempts by out-of-state interests. (AP Photo\/Morgan Lee)<\/span>Morgan Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is making a leadership change at New Mexico\u2019s embattled foster care and child welfare agency.<\/p>\n

The governor on Thursday announced the departure of Barbara Vigil as secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department, effective May 1, while the administration searches for a replacement. For the interim, the agency will be lead by Teresa Casados, a political appointee and top administrator to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s repeat rate of reported child abuse cases is among the worst in the country, amid chronic workforce shortages in the child welfare system and high turnover among employees in protective services.<\/p>\n

The state has responded in recent years with increased investments in services aimed at preventing abuse.<\/p>\n

In February, the governor outlined new efforts to make the agency and its protective services division more responsive<\/a> to the needs of children and complaints from families. She commissioned a policy advisory council that Vigil will now join for its first meeting in May.<\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte expressed frustration with the leadership change and the recent rejection of legislative proposals on child welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegislators were bullied by the governor into rejecting viable, bipartisan solutions with the empty promise that Secretary Vigil would be a steady hand of change,\u201d Diamond said in a statement. \u201cThis is truly a sad day for New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigil, a former state Supreme Court justice, took the reins of the agency in October 2021 amid New Mexico\u2019s long-standing struggle to improve childhood well-being.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Lujan Grisham called Vigil a stabilizing force for the agency, where she improved relationships with staff and constituents including Native American communities.<\/p>\n

Vigil oversaw initial implementation of the state\u2019s Indian Family Protection Act, aimed at preventing any arbitrary separation of Native American children from cultural ties to tribal communities.<\/p>\n

But frustrations with the agency and concerns about child welfare continue to run high<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, Republican lawmakers in the legislative minority led calls for greater accountability through jilted proposals to hire a \u201cchief child advocate\u201d to investigate grievances and new standards for assessing the needs of children.<\/p>\n

The governor signed a bill establishing tighter deadlines for courts to determine whether youths remain in state custody, but rejected other accountability initiatives \u2013 including a failed proposal to create a civil rights division at the attorney general\u2019s office to advocate for the rights of children.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Vigil was hopeful about prospects for improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaborating with child welfare professionals, we built a foundation for lasting change and positive outcomes for our children and families, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State\u2019s repeat rate of reported child abuse cases is among the worst in the country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82679,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617\/revisions\/82679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34617"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}