Student Census: Letter of Information for Students

You are invited to do the 2025 Student Census because you are a student in the Limestone District School Board. We want to help all students do well and feel good at school and make sure everyone’s rights are respected. Please read this so you know what the survey is about and can choose if you want to do it. 

Do I have to do this survey? No, it’s your choice. You can skip questions, stop anytime, or come back later. Any answers you give will be saved. 

How long will it take? The survey might take about 30 minutes, but you may take more or less time.

How do I do the survey? The survey is online. The link to your survey is in your Limestone email inbox. This link is just for you. You cannot take the survey using another link.

What is the survey about? This survey asks about who you are and what school is like for you. Later, we add your school information (like your grade and some academic information) to your answers. This helps us see how your identity, school experience, and learning are connected.

What if I don’t like some of the questions? Sometimes, reading and answering questions about yourself and your identity can lead to big feelings or concerns, and that’s okay. You can stop the survey any time and don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to. Ask a parent or caregiver, trusted staff at your school, or another trusted adult in your life if you want to talk more about the topics on the survey.

Will you show anyone my answers? No, your answers are private. We won’t share them unless we’re worried that you’re in danger or might hurt yourself or someone else. If that happens, we’ll only tell the people who need to help keep you safe.

How are you keeping my answers private? We follow strict privacy rules to keep your answers safe:

• Only the two people on the Research Team can see your answers.
• We only share group results (15 or more students). Smaller groups are combined or not shared.
• We use a Canadian, safe survey tool called Voxco.
• Your email address is stored separately from your answers.
• We never email files, and all paper files are locked in a secure office. Our computers are password-protected and encrypted.

If someone gets access to your information by mistake (called a privacy breach), we follow Limestone’s safety rules (Administrative Procedure 195) to fix it.

Will the Research Team know which answers are mine? Yes. The survey is confidential, not anonymous. We collect your email address with your answers so we can link your school data, send you your personal survey link, and remove your answers if you ask. We don’t use your email when we study the results.

Will anyone else know which answers are mine? No. After we collect your answers, we remove your email address, so it isn’t stored with your answers. This process is called “deidentifying.” We keep your email address in a separate, safe file in case you ask us to delete your answers later.

How long will your keep my answers? We keep your deidentified answers for five years on Limestone’s Microsoft servers. This helps us learn how student experiences and identities change over time. You can ask us to delete your answers anytime by emailing studentcensus@limestone.on.ca. We can’t remove your information from reports we’ve already shared.

What are you going to do with my answers? We combine your answers and your school data with other students to learn what school is like for different identity groups (for example, students with disabilities). We write reports to show where the board is doing well and where we need to improve. Then, staff and leaders work to make things better. You can read what happened after the last census on our Student Census webpage.

If I have questions about this survey, who can I ask? Talk to a parent, caregiver, teacher, or trusted adult at school or in your community. You can also send question to the Research Team at studentcensus@limestone.on.ca.