Students’ Cumulative File

There is no legislated definition of a student record or cumulative folder for a student. The Education Act, 1995 requires that principals and teachers must keep records of attendance and report on the progress of students but does not specify what other records should be kept. Policy of the board of education (board) and school will dictate what other information will be collected.

The Ministry of Education has prepared a The Student Cumulative Record Guidelines document setting out recommendations for information that should be recorded and maintained in a student cumulative record. It sets out what is generally accepted as the minimal documentation needed to track student progress over time.

The Guidelines recommend that boards adopt similar standards and similar process so that the cumulative record would follow the student throughout the student’s schooling.

Boards may also include other information on the cumulative record if it wishes to do so.

There may be only one file on a student or there may be many files, including those kept by individual teachers and consultants. The board can set up as many different types of files on a student as it requires.

Different files can have different rules of access. The board could, theoretically, keep everything on a student in one file and limit access to certain documents within that file only to certain persons. As long as all files are documented and accessible to those who need them and secure from those who should not see them, it is entirely up to the division and school as to how this will be done.