Canada's largest school board has begun a sweeping new census of its students that includes questions about sexual orientation and race, but some students wonder about its accuracy.

Beginning Monday, thousands of public school students from the Toronto District School Board will be asked to voluntarily fill out a survey with questions about demographics, the school environment and life outside of school.

But some students question whether the portrait it paints of student life will reflect reality.

Jessica Burgess, a 15-year-old student at Malvern Collegiate in the city's east end, said she thinks her classmates may not answer honestly if they find some questions, such as those on sexual orientation, difficult.

It's a topic that receives little attention at her school, she said, unlike hot topics like drugs and alcohol, which have been the focus of several seminars.

Concerns about confidentiality

There are also some worries that even though the survey is confidential, it could somehow get released.

"I don't know if you'd get a lot of the correct answers on the survey just because, I don't know, they [students] might think that [the information] might get out," she said.

The question regarding sexuality on the survey asks whether the student is straight or gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer or two-spirited. Two-spirited is an aboriginal term describing those who show both male and female characteristics.

The school board has also battled concerns from parents when the survey made local headlines two months ago over worries about the addition not only of questions about sexual orientation, but also of questions asking about ethnic background.

The survey includes questions about country of birth, race and language spoken at home, as well as inquiries about safety at home and school.

Survey will help board understand needs: executive director

School board officials defend the decision as an effort to understand the problems facing all of their students.

"The diversity of our students does include students of different sexual orientations," said Lloyd McKell, the board's executive officer of student and community equity.

McKell said the idea of a census began two years ago during discussions about the disproportionate number of students from certain backgrounds not graduating. Among those who had difficulties were students from countries in the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia and Central and South America.

The survey soon came to include not only information about demographics, but also about student perceptions about the school environment, home life and the community.

The data collected will be sent to the board's research department, where it will be compared to students grades and other achievement data.

All 270,000 students, from kindergarten through Grade 12 will be given the new census, but only forms handed out to those in Grades 9 through 12 will include questions about sexual orientation. 

Those students in kindergarten through Grade 6 will also be sent home with a survey in March, to be filled out by their parents.

Some school boards distribute demographic surveys, but the Toronto board's census is believed to be the broadest in scope, McKell said.

The board expects to release an interim report on the census in spring.