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The state Public Education Department will drop its ethics case against an Albuquerque school administrator after a judge refused to allow crucial records to be disclosed.

Elsy Fierro had been accused by the state Public Education Department of "exerting undue influence" and not giving her superiors complete information on a grade change she approved last spring that allowed a Rio Grande High School senior to graduate with the rest of his class.

The student's parents are former Albuquerque Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova.

Fierro's attorney, Gail Stewart, said she will be reviewing her client's next steps after the case is dismissed.

"The PED hasn't set the record straight as far as its false accusations against Dr. Fierro," Stewart said.

Dorian Dodson, who will act as the education secretary on the case, will be asked to order the dismissal.

In a decision Thursday refusing to allow the student's records to be released, District Judge Nan Nash limited the scope of Fierro's public hearing, undercutting the state's case.

Nash ruled that the state can use witnesses, but not the student's records, to present its case against Fierro in a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said in a news release Thursday that without access to the records, the department could no longer pursue the case.

Nash had suggested in her written decision that the state could have continued with its case.

"While the records are extremely useful, NMPED can present at least some of the information through witness testimony," Nash wrote.

The student's attorney, Phillip Sapien, had argued that if the records were released his client would suffer more harm, humiliation and harassment.

"I don't think they can really get into anything specific" without violating federal law protecting the student's privacy, he said.

After Nash's ruling, Sapien called the decision "a victory for all New Mexico students' " privacy rights.