Student information is all the information in a student’s school profile, together with personal information that gives support to the student’s education. Student information includes records of attendance, academic performance, school achievements, grade transition, special needs, medical information, contact information, and relevant family information. First Nations schools in British Columbia have managed student information in a variety of ways, depending on the size of the school and the administrative and technical capacity of each school.

In 2003, the BC Ministry of Education selected eSIS (Electronic Student Information System), developed by Administrative Assistants Ltd. in Ontario, to become the common student information system for the province’s public and private school systems. The Ministry contracted Fujitsu Consulting to support implementation of eSIS in schools across the province on behalf of the Ministry beginning in 2004.

BCeSIS is a web-based central student registry, permanent student record database, and information management system. In many different implementations, the eSIS system is in use today in public and private school systems across North America. In BC, each school district is responsible for implementation of BCeSIS within the district, supported by the province’s BCeSIS implementation team.

BCeSIS has been developed and is operated within strict privacy protection and security disciplines. All student and school data is encrypted at financial industry encryption standards. BCeSIS data is stored on servers housed in facilities specially constructed to provide every protection from unauthorized access and from natural disaster. Access to any BCeSIS data is limited by specific authorizations set out in BCeSIS access protocols.

Having a strong belief in the ability of data to inform and prioritize educational activities and influence educational policy, the FNSA at its 2005 Annual General Meeting agreed that it would be extremely beneficial to implement the BCeSIS system in First Nations schools. This decision was made in part due to the expectation that BCeSIS could assist First Nations schools in the more efficient transfer of information pertaining to students moving between First Nations schools and other schools in the province.

In October 2005, the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) completed a First Nations BCeSIS Business Plan outlining implementation of BCeSIS in member schools of the First Nations Schools Association (FNSA). During 2006, a comprehensive First Nations BCeSIS Implementation Plan was developed by the FNESC project team with the support of First Nations Advisory committees, the Ministry of Education and Fujitsu Consulting. This Implementation Plan was presented to the FNSA board of directors on February 22nd 2007 and approved to be presented to FNSA membership at the FNSA Annual General Meeting on April 20/21 2007.

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