HIGHER ED DEMOGRAPHIC DATA REPORTING

HB 117 requires New Mexico's public colleges and universities to collect and report voluntary data about students' parents' or guardians' educational attainment, including extended family caregivers (fictive kin). The data must be aggregated at the state or local level to protect privacy and shared with the state's Higher Education Department. This aggregated information will be used to identify demographic gaps, improve educational services, support research, and meet federal grant requirements. The bill does not mandate data collection but sets standards for how institutions must handle it if they choose to gather such information.