The Santa Fe and Los Alamos public school districts in New Mexico have spurned a state requirement to use an artificial intelligence-based software for reading assessments when the school year begins in the coming weeks, citing student privacy concerns.
At a board meeting on July 30 in Santa Fe, Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Christine Griffin announced that the district would be pausing use of the program, called Amira, until it received direction from the New Mexico Public Education Department on student privacy. Parents said they were concerned that the program—which works by listening to students read aloud and catching their mistakes—was saving and recording their students’ voices to “train” software products for commercial purposes.
“[The state education department] is actively working with Amira to address these concerns and provide districts with additional guidance and flexibility,” Griffin said. “While this work continues, however, Santa Fe Public Schools will refrain from using Amira, including the voice recording feature, until additional guidance is available.”
If the Santa Fe district does not receive direction from the state by Aug. 14, one week into the school year, Griffin said the district would use i-Ready, the software both Santa Fe and Albuquerque Public Schools use for math assessments, which does not incorporate voice recordings.
In a letter to New Mexico Education Secretary Mariana Padilla published Sunday in the Los Alamos Daily Post, Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Guy said her district, too, would be pausing use of Amira until security and accuracy concerns were resolved. Guy said the district would instead use the DIBELS test, a reading assessment administered by a teacher, in the interim.
“Our families are asking questions we cannot fully answer: Where are these voice recordings stored, and for how long? Who can access them?” Guy wrote. “Until we can provide our district and families with clear, verifiable answers to these questions, we do not believe the state should require children to submit their voices to the platform.”
State education department spokesperson Janelle Taylor Garcia said in a statement that the department’s updated guidance on Amira use is “forthcoming.”
“This guidance will include options related to the use of Amira for student literacy assessments as well as information regarding student privacy and confidentiality of student education records,” Taylor Garcia said. “Student safety is our priority, and we will continue to work with districts and charters to ensure that both student privacy and high-quality literacy instruction remain priorities.”
Albuquerque Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is among other school districts that will continue to use Amira in accordance with state requirements, Albuquerque Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey said on Monday.
“We’re just following the [state] education department’s guidance on it,” Durán Blakey said.
As of the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, Amira use is mandatory for students in kindergarten through 2nd grade at public schools and public charter schools, though its use is approved up to 8th grade. The program tutors, conducts reading tests, and screens students for dyslexia.
“Amira, right now, is the dyslexia screener that we’re required to use,” Durán Blakey added.
Albuquerque has had successes using Amira for both testing and tutoring, Deputy Superintendent Randy Mahlerwein said.
Last school year, the district’s 1st and 2nd graders logged their highest reading scores since at least 2021 using Amira—34% of 1st graders and 39% of 2nd graders were proficient in reading at the end of May.
“We know that AI is a tool, and we know that AI can benefit, but I think we also need to be responsible,” Mahlerwein said.
The state education department began using Amira after the software provider schools had been using for testing, Istation, was acquired by the San Francisco-based company Amira Learning.
Amira is required for assessments in two states—New Mexico and Idaho—and is authorized for state use in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas though some New Mexico policymakers have admitted its rollout was hasty.
“[The state’s] deployment of Amira highlights the state’s current policy gaps,” Saraí Ortiz, a policy analyst with the Legislative Education Study Committee, said at a committee meeting in May. “It’s unclear what vetting process and stakeholder input [the state] used prior to implementation.”
At that same meeting, Ortiz made a recommendation to the committee that the state adopt a statewide governance plan for the use of AI in schools. New Mexico is one of three states that passed a legislative measure to study AI in education, though the legislature has not yet implemented a formal policy.
Sally DeRadke, the mother of an incoming 2nd grader in the Albuquerque Public Schools, said she felt uneasy at the thought of her child’s voice being used to train AI software.
“My main concern is that my child’s biometric data has been collected for a year without my knowledge or consent, and we have no idea where this data is being stored and what is being done with it,” DeRadke said.
DeRadke said she hopes the district develops an option for parents to opt their children out of Amira in favor of more traditional testing methods.
“Assessment is important to catch developmental delays and any learning differences early on, so I want my child assessed,” she said. “I just don’t want them using an AI tool to assess my child.”
