Santa Fe Public Schools has paused use of New Mexico’s state-required Amira reading software amid concerns about student privacy, including the program’s recording of students’ voices and use of data to train its products.
Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) Superintendent Christine Griffin announced the pause during a July 30 school board meeting, saying the district would refrain from using Amira until the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) provides additional guidance on student privacy.
“PED 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.”
Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, the New Mexico PED required all students in kindergarten through second grade to take the Amira ISIP reading assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. PED said the assessment uses real-time voice recognition and artificial intelligence analysis to measure oral reading fluency, detect reading errors, and provide feedback.
Amira also offers reading tutoring and screening for the risk of dyslexia. The company describes its platform as combining assessment, tutoring, and instruction, while its ISIP assessment is designed to identify students at risk of reading difficulties, including dyslexia.
The software listens to students read aloud and records their voices. Amira’s privacy policy says districts direct how long those recordings are retained and that student voice recording and analysis are used for instructional purposes and to aid teachers. The policy also says information collected from students may be used to analyze, operate, and improve Amira’s services.
Amira is also used for state-required early literacy testing in Idaho. California, Michigan, and Massachusetts list Amira among approved early literacy screening assessments, while Oklahoma provides the Amira Statewide Screening Assessment at no cost to districts and has approved it to satisfy the state’s K-3 reading screening requirement.
SFPS is preparing an alternative if the state does not provide additional direction.
Griffin said that if the district does not receive guidance from PED by Aug. 14 – one week into the school year – SFPS will use i-Ready instead. The software does not incorporate voice recordings.
