New Mexico Administrative Code

Permanent.

2/22/2022, unless a later date is cited at the end of a section.

To establish guidelines for protective services division (PSD) staff, managed care organizations (MCOs), care coordinators, and other professionals who come into contact, or are working with, substance exposed infants and their caregivers to provide comprehensive plans of care an…

A. "Care coordination level (CCL)" identifies the level of support a member needs through care coordination services for the member to improve or maintain and manage their individual health needs effectively. Members are assigned to either care coordination level two (CCL2) or ca…

A. In accordance with Subsection H of Section 32A-4-3 NMSA 1978, when a newborn in New Mexico has been identified with substance exposure, as evidenced by toxicology results of the newborn or mother, or when a caregiver discloses substance use during the pregnancy, written notifi…

A. A plan of care with services is to be offered prior to a newborn's discharge from the hospital when substance exposure has been identified. B. The purpose of POC is to ensure continuity and engagement of support services for the newborn and caregivers. A POC is the document co…

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), Protective Services Division (PSD).

A. The IHS practitioner shall make a foster care candidacy determination for each child in a family receiving IHS. A child may be considered a foster care candidate when a child is determined to be conditionally safe and the risk of maltreatment is moderate or high, or when a chi…

A. IHS are assigned within five calendar days of the disposition of the investigation. B. The investigation is closed within five calendar days of case transfer to an IHS practitioner.

IHS case interventions are provided for a maximum of 180 days, unless the IHS practitioner requests the county office manager grant a 45 day extension. The IHS practitioner documents that an extension of services would assist the family in achievement of goals, reduce the risk of…

A. No waiting list is established or maintained for IHS. B. Families participate in safety related IHS without court intervention. C. Services are provided to the family based on assessment of safety of the child and risk of abuse or neglect to the child by the parent, guardian o…

A. The IHS practitioner schedules the initial face-to-face contact with the family within 72 hours from transfer of the case to IHS. B. The IHS practitioner shall meet with the family at least weekly through the duration of the case. C. When determining the meeting frequency and …

A. The IHS practitioner, in collaboration with the family, completes a family assessment and develops a safety plan and family plan. B. The IHS practitioner, in collaboration with the family, reviews and updates the family's safety plan, addressing all individuals in the family. …

IHS practitioners utilize staffing and conferences to develop, assess, or review plans and to review services and the safety of a child.

PSD may use EDF to assist the family with the goals identified in the family plan to reduce safety and risk factors for children in the home. EDF, when related to safety and risk, can be used to purchase products or services such as rent or rent deposits, utilities, clothing, tra…

If a report is made to statewide central intake when there is reason to believe abuse or neglect has occurred subsequent to the original report that resulted in providing IHS, then a new investigation will occur. A new investigation does not disqualify a family from receiving IHS…

A decision by the family to refuse or withdraw from services does not constitute abuse or neglect. When the family refuses IHS, the IHS practitioner, in consultation with the supervisor, reviews the results of the safety and risk assessments as well as other pertinent information…

Protective services division employees and the general public.

When the family withdraws after beginning IHS, the practitioner shall conduct a safety assessment and a risk assessment and review the results. The practitioner also considers information from the investigation, as well as other pertinent information, to determine an appropriate …

IHS cases may be closed with no further intervention from PSD when the structured decision making instruments are completed and: A. the safety assessment instrument documents that the child is safe, or conditionally safe; B. the safety assessment and risk assessment instruments d…

Case plans, case contracts, and supervisory consultations are documented in FACTS.

Children, Youth and Families Department Act, Subsection D of 9-2A-7 NMSA 1978; New Mexico Children's Code, Section 32A-1-1 NMSA 1978.

Permanent.

March 15, 2016, unless a later date is cited at the end of a section.

To establish guidelines for the provision of in-home services to families at high or moderate risk, or with a child under the age of three, to reduce risk of maltreatment and to promote the continued safety of children.

A. "Abused child" as defined in the Children's Code, Subsection B of 32A-4-2 NMSA 1978, means a child: (1) who has suffered or who is at risk of suffering serious harm because of the action or inaction of the child's parent, guardian or custodian; (2) who has suffered physical ab…

A. The purpose of IHS is to promote the safety of children and reduce the risk of the recurrence of abuse or neglect of children by their parents, guardians or custodians without the intervention of the courts. B. A child may not be determined to be safe or conditionally safe sol…

A. A family is eligible to receive IHS without regard to income. B. A family may be eligible to receive IHS when: (1) the child has been determined to be conditionally safe and the risk of child abuse or neglect has been determined to be moderate or high; or (2) the child has bee…

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), Protective Services Division (PSD).

A. Confidentiality and access to abuse and neglect records: Protective services records and information incident to, or obtained as a result of an abuse or neglect investigation or proceeding are confidential and can only be inspected pursuant to a valid court order, except by th…

A. PSD shall comply with the provisions of the New Mexico Children's Code and the children's court rules. B. Emergency custody given to PSD by law enforcement shall not be extended. C. When protective supervision has been ordered, the child shall not be removed from their home ab…

A. PSD shall make reasonable efforts to prevent removal of the child and, when removal is necessary, PSD shall make reasonable efforts to reunify the child, and to finalize the child's current permanency plan. B. Reasonable efforts to prevent a child's removal from home, or to re…

Settlement of a child abuse or neglect case at the adjudicatory stage involves a stipulation (admission or plea of no contest) as to the case-specific underlying factual basis of the allegation. In most cases, a stipulation to a lesser charge when there is an allegation of sexual…

PSD shall request that a GAL be appointed to represent and protect the best interests of the child in a abuse or neglect proceeding when the child is less than fourteen (14) years old. PSD shall request that an attorney be appointed to represent the child fourteen (14) years of a…

A. PSD shall complete and provide reports to the court and other parties as required by law. B. The children's court attorney shall provide documentation and evidence so that the court may make specific factual findings in determinations of: (1) reasonable efforts to prevent remo…

A. Parent's rights: Mothers, fathers who are married to the child's mother, and adoptive parents have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in rearing the child. Additionally, those unmarried biological fathers who participate in the child's life as a parent have a simila…

A. PSD shall exercise due diligence to identify and notify adult relatives of a child's removal within 30 days of the removal. The notice shall inform relatives or fictive kin of their option to become a placement resource for the child. B. If the parent is unable or unwilling to…

A. A permanency hearing shall be commenced within six months of the initial judicial review of a child's dispositional order or within 12 months from the date a child enters foster care, whichever occurs first. B. If the court adopts a permanency plan of reunification at the perm…

A. The discharge hearing is the last review or permanency hearing held prior to the youth's eighteenth (18th) birthday at which the court shall review the youth's transition plan (see herein at Paragraph (2) of Subsection F of 8.10.7.15 NMAC) and shall determine whether or not PS…

Protective services employees and the general public.

PSD shall give notice to all parties, the child's guardian ad litem or youth attorney if 14 years or older, the child's court appointed special advocate, the contractor administering the citizen review board, the child's resource family, pre-adoptive parents, or relative or ficti…

A. The children's court attorney shall attend the change of plan staffing when PSD is considering recommending to the court that a child's plan be changed to adoption. PSD shall pursue a motion to terminate parental rights within 45 days of the PSD staffing establishing a plan of…

A. Relinquishments may only be taken in furtherance of a plan of adoption, or in cases where a severance of the parent-child relationship is therapeutically necessary for the child's emotional or physical well-being. B. The children's court attorney shall create a record in the d…

PSD may move the court for an order establishing a permanent guardianship for the child.

A. PSD shall respond to reports of medical neglect of children (including instances of withholding of medically indicated treatment from disabled infants with life-threatening conditions) and shall take the necessary legal action to protect those children. B. The term withholding…

A. PSD shall seek parental consent to removing a child in PSD custody from life support systems. B. When parents refuse consent, the children's court attorney shall request an emergency court setting on the issue and give notice to the parents. C. PSD shall keep the guardian ad l…

Anytime a child in the custody of PSD is in need of placement in a mental health facility, the children's court attorney shall file an appropriate pleading with the district court.

PSD shall decide when it is appropriate to file a family in need of court-ordered services petition, in accordance with the Children's Code, Section 32A-3B et seq. NMSA 1978. Services to the child or family may be ordered when the child or family has refused services, or appropri…

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), hereinafter referred to as "ICWA", was enacted to protect the best interests of Indian children and preserve tribal integrity by reducing the destruction of Indian culture caused by the removal of children from Indian…

A. In those cases in which a child is a foreign national child without legal permanent residency in the United States, and if the permanency plan does not include reunification with at least one parent and PSD does not recommend that the child be returned to the country of origin…