A 5-year-old girl plays on a climbing wall at a playground in Illinois in 2023. Over the past decade, states have worked steadily to recognize the roles of grandparents and other extended loved ones, now known collectively as kinship caregivers, in raising children who otherwise might be in foster care. (Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images)
An estimated 40,000 New Mexico children were raised by grandparents, next-of-kin or family friends in 2024, according to the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department, which cites parental substance abuse disorders as the primary reason.
House Bill 252, sponsored by 24 lawmakers and carried by Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo), would create a three-year Kinship Caregiver Support Pilot Program to assist kinship caregivers in navigating the legal system and other supportive services they may not know are available to them.
The bill unanimously passed the House Appropriations and Finance Committee Monday. It previously passed the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee and will now head to the floor for a full House vote.
The bill identifies Rio Arriba, Santa Fe, Taos, McKinley and Doña Ana counties as locations for the program. Fifty participants in each community who are grandparents, next-of-kin or close family friends, known as fictive kin, who are raising children will find help through legal services, public assistance and economic support. The program would be operated out of the Aging and Long-Term Services Department and receive a $4.5 million general fund appropriation.
“You see statistically that grandchildren do better when they’re with their family. Children do better when they’re with kin verses in the foster system, and that’s exactly what this bill is going to help do,” Rep. Michelle Abeyta (D-To’hajilee) told committee members, adding that she went through a similar situation herself as a child when her grandmother sought guardianship of her.
If passed and signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, HB252 would go into effect immediately and require annual reports assessing the program.
Herrera told committee members Monday that the program is ultimately intended to help caregivers “navigate through the programs we have in place at the federal, state and local level.”
“When you have this problem before you, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Herrera said. “The aging department would help people kind of learn about what’s available to them.”
According to the bill’s fiscal impact report, the Aging and Long-Term Services Department reports that the estimated number of New Mexico children under kinship care grew by 10,000 children between 2017 and 2024 and is much higher than the national average. The report also notes that over a quarter of grandparents raising their grandchildren in 2022 lived in poverty.
Herrera said she envisions the program growing to include more counties and communities in the state, but for now she is limited to the five counties where nonprofit organizations or foundations have agreed to join as program partners.
She added that she chose the aging department rather than the Children, Youth and Families Department to administer the program because grandparents are more comfortable with senior centers. She noted a negative perception people have of CYFD, which oversees the state’s foster care system.
CYFD and the Human Services Department were sued in 2018 based on claims that children in New Mexico’s welfare system were not receiving behavioral health services and appropriate foster placements. The parties entered into a settlement, known as the Kevin S. Settlement, in 2020 and the case was dismissed. The settlement agreement involves a change in department policies, oversight and data collection. Several proposals at this year’s Legislature seek to reform the department.
“We chose aging because people don’t trust CYFD. Grandparents don’t want to go to CYFD,” Herrera said. “We wanted a place where grandparents felt safe.”
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