Page 32 - Building Bridges to Success for First Nation, Métis and Inuit Students – Developing Policies for Voluntary, Confidential Aboriginal Student Self-Identification: Successful Practices for Ontario School Boards

• Building Bridges to Success for First Nation, Métis and Inuit Students
A. Policy Statement
It is the policy of the Kenora Catholic District School Board to provide programs as a way to help Aboriginal students who experience gaps in their education by putting into place measures that respond to particular needs. All Aboriginal students and their parents have the right to voluntarily self-identify so that they may receive supportive programming. The first such measure in recognizing this right is to establish a self-identification procedure to identify, collect and aggregate student achievement data
for Aboriginal students.
Definition: Aboriginal identification refers to the definition in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35(2), in that “Aboriginal peoples” include “Indian, Inuit and Métis”.
B. Rationale
The learning aspirations and potentials of Aboriginal students can be realized through a responsive, transparent and accountable policy that
focuses on improved programs and services and builds on strong partner- ships with Aboriginal parents and their communities. Student achievement data needs to be collected and aggregated related to the performance of Aboriginal students. This is to determine whether programs currently delivered offer similar opportunities for success as for other students. Continued data collection and analysis will provide information for future decision-making surrounding Aboriginal student success.
Aboriginal Student Self-Identification Policy
Kenora Catholic District School Board POLICY: SELF-IDENTIFICATION
SECTION: 700 SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
APPROVAL/REVISION EFFECTIVE
DATE: December 14, 2004 DATE: December 14, 2004
No. 706
Page 36 of 43
REVIEW
DATE: December 2006
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