Opening your page…
You can still use the navigation while it loads.
Opening your page…
You can still use the navigation while it loads.
Intercultural Practice and Equity · Complex systems
Identity information does not behave like the rest of an administrative record. Four lessons on what the division asks, what it keeps, who can see it, and how a form, a policy or a message can include people without exposing them.
40–45 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning
Most of what a record holds is dull and correctable. A few fields are neither. This lesson is about what makes identity information behave differently, and what a disclosure sets in motion for someone who depends on a service.
A field on a form is a promise about what happens next. This lesson covers the five questions that have to be answered before the field exists, and what the state already owes a person when it asks.
A notice can out someone. So can a caption, a voicemail or a sign-in sheet. This lesson separates representation from exposure, and works on the wording, images, examples and contact routines that decide which one a message does.
The practical part. Five lines you can run over one real document in about an hour, ending with a fix you can make yourself and an ask you can take to somebody else.
Choose one form, policy or message you can actually change. Run the five review lines over it, fix what sits inside your own step, and take the rest to the named owner with a specific ask and a review point.
Most of what a public record holds is ordinary and correctable. A few fields are not. Information about a person’s identity, relationships or household can change how they are treated by a relative, a housemate, a support worker, a landlord or an employer, and it cannot be taken back once it has moved. This module is about the part of that risk the division controls: the questions we add to forms, the notices we mail, the fields a record can and cannot hold, the photographs and examples we publish, and the reports we release. It ends with a five-line review you can run over one real document in about an hour, and a fix you can make without anyone’s permission.
Ask what an answer costs the person before deciding the field is harmless.
Keep the five questions, the difference between representation and exposure, and the five review lines in view while you design a form, add a field, write a notice or prepare a report.
Run the five review lines over one document you can actually change, and make the fix inside your own step before the review goes anywhere.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
Minnesota’s law on government data, including how data on individuals is classified and the notice required when a state agency asks a person to supply private or confidential data about themselves.
The state office that advises on data practices questions, classification and the responsibilities of a responsible authority.
The state agency that enforces the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which lists sexual orientation and gender identity among its protected characteristics.
Consensus guidance on when and how to ask identity questions in surveys and administrative records, including optionality, purpose and protecting respondents in small counts.
National standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including the governance, communication, data collection and community partnership standards used in this module.
Practical guidance for writing questions, notices and letters people can act on, including how to explain why information is being requested.
Minnesota’s advisory council on disability policy, access and rights, including guidance for state agencies on accessible forms, notices and public processes.
The design reference for this curriculum: multiple ways to engage, culturally responsive materials and accessible instruction.