SANTA FE — State Rep. Rebecca Dow, R–Truth or Consequences, criticized Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order banning overnight stays for children in state custody, calling it a “band-aid solution” that fails to address chronic shortages in foster and therapeutic placements.
The order directs the Children, Youth and Families Department to end the practice of children sleeping overnight in agency offices by March 1, requiring placements only in licensed foster homes, shelters, kinship care or transitional facilities. Dow said the order acknowledges a long-standing problem without providing the capacity needed to comply with it.
“An executive order alone doesn’t create placements for kids who have nowhere else to go,” Dow said in a statement. “Without real funding, real incentives and real accountability, this is a temporary fix that leaves children at risk of being shuffled from one crisis to the next.”
Dow introduced House Bill 65 the same day the order was issued. The bill would establish a three-year stabilization pilot program aimed at expanding therapeutic foster care, providing 24/7 crisis support and incentivizing small, home-like placements for children with high behavioral health needs.
Concerns about children sleeping in CYFD offices have been raised publicly for years. Maralyn Beck, executive director of the New Mexico Child First Network, said during legislative hearings and in interviews previously reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican that placing children in CYFD offices subjects already traumatized youth to environments that are neither appropriate nor humane.
Beck has said the practice reflects systemic failures in placement capacity rather than isolated emergencies, leaving frontline workers with few safe alternatives when foster homes or treatment beds are unavailable.
Dow echoed those concerns, arguing the governor’s order risks becoming symbolic without legislative action.
“If we are serious about never allowing this to happen again, we have to build the placements first,” Dow said. “HB 65 is how you turn a press release into a permanent solution.”
