Advocates hopeful legislators will act on grim N.M. child well-being report

By Cynthia Miller, Santa Fe New Mexican
Jan. 15, 2019

A new report on child welfare offers a deeper look at some grim statistics for New Mexico, which fell to last in the nation last year on a key state-by-state assessment of the well-being of children and families.

“This is the time to go bold or go home,” says the 2018 New Mexico Kids Count Data Book, scheduled for release Tuesday.

“Overall, I would say the report is not good,” said James Jimenez, executive director of Albuquerque-based New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group that prepared the report.

But Jimenez added Voices for Children is hopeful that with a new governor and a wave of new Democratic legislators in office, it will see a swell of support in this year’s legislative session for policy changes the organization believes will boost child well-being in the long term.

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