Santa Fe, Los Alamos schools skip AI reading software over privacy concerns

Santa Fe and Los Alamos school districts have decided not to use Amira, the state-required AI reading program, over student privacy concerns as families prepare for the new school year. The software has raised alarms because it can record student voices, and district leaders are treating that as a boundary on what classroom technology they will adopt.

At a Santa Fe Public Schools board meeting on July 30, Superintendent Christine Griffin said the district would hold off on using Amira until it received more guidance from the New Mexico Public Education Department. An online opt-out campaign pushed the same message harder, saying SFPS was using “untested AI to record the voices of our youngest children” and pointing parents to the July 30 meeting with Griffin and board members Sarah Boses and Juan B.

The decision lands against a state backdrop that still treats Amira as part of early literacy support. The New Mexico Public Education Department’s August 2025 Amira/ISIP guidance said it continued to fund Amira ISIP statewide for early literacy, while a legislative policy brief dated May 27, 2026, said 35 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had introduced AI-related education legislation since 2025, and 24 states had enacted AI laws. That rush of new policy has turned a reading tool into a test case for how much student data parents will accept schools collecting.

Albuquerque Public Schools has kept Amira in use, underscoring a split among New Mexico districts over how to respond. For Santa Fe and Los Alamos families, the immediate concern is not just whether the tool helps reading instruction, but whether a system that captures children’s voices should be rolled out before schools can spell out who controls the recordings, how long they are kept and what protections follow them.

The districts have not said they are abandoning early literacy support, but they have drawn a line around this product while the state works on clearer direction. With the school year approaching, parents in Santa Fe County will be watching for that guidance and for a plan that protects student data without leaving classrooms short on reading help.