Appendix E-3 District Participant Notification Document

Consent to Participate (District Respondent)

[NOTE: A COPY OF THIS PARTICIPANT NOTIFICATION WILL BE PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS IN AN ADVANCE MAILING. THIS TEXT WILL ALSO BE DISPLAYED ON SCREEN AFTER PARTICIPANTS LOG INTO THE WEB-BASED QUESTIONNAIRE, BEFORE THE FIRST SET OF QUESTIONS IS DISPLAYED.]

You have been invited to take part in the School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) 2016, a research project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study will measure the characteristics of eight components of school health programs at the elementary, middle, and high school levels: health education, physical education and activity, health services, nutrition services, healthy and safe school environment, mental health and social services, faculty and staff health promotion, and family and community involvement. Personnel in approximately 850 school districts throughout the country will be asked to complete questionnaires about their school health programs.

You were identified as the person best able to address questions about district-level policies regarding one or more of the topic areas listed above. Your participation in this study will involve responding to a web-based questionnaire about your district’s policies. The time required to respond to the questionnaire(s) varies, but can be as few as 5 minutes to about 45 minutes.

Your participation is voluntary and you may stop participating at any time. You have the right to refuse to answer any question. Your participation will be treated in a confidential manner unless otherwise compelled by law and the information you give us will be combined with the responses of staff in other school districts in a summary report that does not identify you or your school district. There are no risks or benefits to you for participating.

If you have any questions about the study, please call Dr. Nancy Brener of the CDC at 770-488-6184 or Alice Roberts of ICF Macro at 800-287-1815. A review board at CDC has determined this study to be exempt from the human subjects review process. If you have any questions about your rights as a study participant, you can call 1-800-584-8814. Leave a message with your name and phone number, and refer to CDC protocol #4623. Someone will call you back. 

You have received this information because your district has agreed to participate in SHPPS 2016. You may access the questionnaire at www.policyandpracticesurvey.com to participate. Please refer to the materials enclosed with this form to obtain further information on how to complete this questionnaire.

Thank you.