Indigenous Excellence

Indigenous Identity Declaration

Promotional Materials – September 2017

Declare your child's Indigenous Identity

As part of Education and Early Childhood Learning’s continued collection and promotion of the Indigenous Identity Declaration, new promotional materials were mailed out to Manitoba schools in September 2017. This included a poster(s) along with brochures and questions and answers fact sheets. Please display the poster in a suitable area and share the promotional information with parents and guardians to help promote voluntary Indigenous self-identity declaration at time of registration. Additional copies of any of these materials may be downloaded and used as necessary.

UPDATE November 2016
Letter to Superintendents and Principals of Kindergarten to Grade 12 Schools (Adobe Icon 104 KB)
Re: Directive for September 2017 Aboriginal Identity Declaration (AID) Information Collection in the Education Information System (EIS) - Update

Pan-Canadian Approach to Harmonized Aboriginal Data Collection
Information Sheet, December 2013 (Adobe PDF document 171 KB)

Additional Resources
Identifier Descriptions (Adobe Icon 20 KB)

Schools in Manitoba require accurate information about pupils. Personal information is collected from parents about their child. A pupil file is a record or a collection of records respecting a pupil’s personal information, attendance, academic achievement and other related matters.

The information in pupil files is very important for planning and recording achievement. It is used to plan programs for individual students and record a student’s educational progress through their Kindergarten to Grade 12 education.

School boards are responsible for all matters respecting the collection, storage, retrieval and use of information respecting pupils. Access to pupil files and the protection of pupil file information is governed by The Public Schools Act (PSA), the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA). A person requesting access to a record must make application to the access and privacy coordinator of the school division.

Indigenous Identity Declaration collects information about the ancestral/cultural background of Indigenous students. The purpose of this information is to assist schools, school divisions and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Learning plan programs to improve student success.

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Questions and Answers for Administrators

The following questions and answers are based on information received from administrators about the IE.

As an administrator, when should I send the IE information out to parents requesting this information?
Typically, schools send the IE information out to parents/guardians with the yearly registration packages. In many schools this begins in March for school beginning in September. The data can then be collected through regular EIS data collection practices. It is also recommended that with new kindergarten registrations, the IE information is sent to parents/guardians.
As an administrator, do I send the IE information out to my Indigenous parents only?
No. The IE information must be sent to all parents/guardians. A person’s ancestral/cultural identity should not be assumed.
I’ve received a blank form back from a parent, do I fill out the form for them?
No. You cannot fill the information out for the parent/guardian, as this violates their legal rights. The information can only be declared voluntarily by the parent/guardian. If you do receive a blank form, you must leave the fields in EIS blank.
Can I download the form and other information that we send to parents off the Web?
Yes.
I’ve had requests from parents and some associations about sharing the data we collect. Can we share this information?
The information the school collects is protected by privacy legislation. Please contact the privacy coordinator in your school division for more information about what can be shared.

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