Opt in or opt out? Albuquerque Public Schools survey asked students about gender, sex, alcohol and drugs

A New Mexico’s largest school district provided students in grades 6 to 12 surveys asking about their gender, use of alcohol and drugs, and sexual intercourse.

The New Mexico Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey at Albuquerque Public Schools asked several questions about use of drugs, including how often students “sniffed” items, such as glue, aerosol spray cans, and paints “to get high.” It also asked if students have used different drugs, as well as if they have injected “illegal drugs” into their bodies.

Students were then asked seven questions about “sexual behavior,” including the first time they had sex and how many times they have done so. They were also asked what methods they used to “prevent pregnancy,” with “birth control pills” and “withdrawal” as options.

The survey then asked about gender identity.

“There are many ways that people understand and describe their gender identity,” one question begins. “Someone who is transgender describes their gender as different from their sex assigned at birth. Someone who is cisgender describes their gender as being the same as their sex assigned at birth. A nonbinary person describes their gender as being not entirely or exclusively man or woman. What is your gender?” 

Students could then select one of the following responses:  

• Cisgender boy or man; 
• Cisgender girl or woman; 
• Transgender boy or man; 
• Transgender girl or woman; 
• Nonbinary; 
• I identify some other way; 
• I do not know what this question is asking. 

Students are also allowed to “skip any question” or “stop participating in the survey at any point,” the consent form said. Both high school and middle school students received the same questions. 

Parents were reportedly made aware of the survey, but they had to opt their children out of the survey, which is sponsored by the New Mexico Public Education Department and the New Mexico Department of Health.  

In an email sent to parents obtained by Parents Defending Education, they were told students would be selected at random to complete the survey during second period classes.  

Students took the survey in October. 

Conservative groups and individuals, including Erika Sanzi from American Enterprise Institute, have encouraged states to make these “intrusive” school surveys “opt-in” rather than “opt-out.” 

She argued how under federal law parents should be notified of “their right to opt their children out of any surveys” that address certain “protected areas,” which include personal information about “students and their families.” 

“Yet, despite the growing ubiquity of surveys that touch on these areas, many parents remain unaware of the content of these questionnaires or the existence of an opt-out provision,” Sanzi said. “This is because the opt-out provision is often found in a small bit of text in a 100-plus-page student handbook that parents are required to sign amid the flurry of back-to-school forms.”