New Mexico's Children's Youth and Families Department was put on notice during a legislative finance committee meeting Tuesday in which the agency was reviewed. Most questions centered around CARA, also known as the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act. The act requires that states develop a plan to care for babies who are born drug-addicted. New Mexico passed its own version of the law in 2019, saying hospital staff must give a CARA baby a plan of care and send them home. “How many CARA babies are there in New Mexico,” asked Democratic state Rep. Tara Jaramillo to interim CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados. “So the 2022 submission for CARA includes a total of 1,388 plans of care that have been submitted for fiscal year 2022,” answered Casados. Jaramillo then asked how many of them were involved in abuse prevention. According to CYFD, out of those nearly 1,400 kids, 535 were reported and screened. “Roughly half of those 535 were individuals that then did need additional services from CYFD,” Casados said. That means 274 kids went home without CYFD oversight. “Do you test those babies to see if they have exposures in the home?” Jaramillo asked. “We don't specifically test those babies that go home,” Casados answered. During a recent 30-minute Target 7 special investigation, we showed you how Republican state Rep. Gail Armstrong walked out of a meeting after no one knew how many children with a plan of care died. She asked the same question on Tuesday. “I hope you know the answer to how many babies died under the CARA Act,” Armstrong said.“I do not know the number, but I'll get it for you,” Casados said. “CARA is at the top of everyone's mind because it's failing our kids that are going home,” Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond said. While Diamond is concerned about CARA, she also wants to see more transparency. Something she brought up during the meeting. She pointed Target 7 to a veto the governor made on House Bill 2. “What that does is, once again, it removes transparency from the process. She vetoed language that would require the agency to report to the Legislative Finance Committee. That's upsetting,” Diamond said. We reached out to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Office about the veto. They sent us a statement saying: “We appreciate the concerns expressed by Sen. Diamond on the issue of transparency at CYFD. Under the leadership of Interim Secretary Casados, the agency launched a first-of-its-kind data dashboard that clearly displays key information about the Department’s progress. As the Interim Secretary also mentioned today, the Department is working toward altering how and what information the agency shares in the case of a child fatality to increase transparency with the public. As you saw today, that transparency extends to the agency’s relationship with the LFC. The Department stands ready to provide any information requested by the Committee and we are sincerely appreciative of their interest in improving our child welfare system. However, a mandate to provide regular reports to the LFC in addition to the myriad other reporting requirements the agency has would only serve to slow the critical and transformative work now being done inside the agency.”