Consent forms

Study of Coordination With School Climate Transformation Grants

Consent for Participation

Purpose

This study examines how state departments of education and school districts that have received multiple federal grants coordinate the activities across those grants. School Climate Transformation Grants aim to improve school safety by supporting schools in the implementation of an evidence-based, multi-tiered system of behavioral support. Project AWARE grants aim to increase access to mental health services by training adults to notice signs of behavioral health distress and intervene appropriately. School Justice Collaboration Program grants supports courts’ collaboration with schools to implement diversion and similar programs to minimize juvenile detention. The study will explore the nature of coordination across grants, the perceived value of coordination, and challenges and lessons learned.

What We Are Asking of You

You have been identified as someone who is actively engaged in implementing one of these grant programs at the state or local level. We are asking you to participate in an approximately 60 minute telephone or video interview about how you coordinate your work with that of other federal grants.

Risks

There are no anticipated or known risks in participating in this study beyond those ordinarily encountered in daily life.

Benefits

Your participation in the study will contribute knowledge about the strategies to coordinate school behavior, school safety, and access to mental health care in states and districts throughout the nation.

Freedom to Withdraw

Your participation is strongly encouraged. Indeed, as noted in the grant application, “By submitting an application for this program, applicants agree to fully cooperate with any evaluation efforts conducted by the Department and its contractors” (OMB# 1894-0006).

Privacy

We will protect the confidentiality of the information you provide, to the extent provided by law. After we collect your responses, your name will be disassociated from the data. Pseudonyms will be used for each grantee. Your responses will be used to summarize findings in an aggregate manner (across groups of grantees), or will be used to provide examples of program implementation in a manner that does not associate responses with a specific individual. Although we will not identify you by name, readers familiar with your grant may be able to deduce your identity from the information shared. Participating institutions will be acknowledged in the final report, but they will not be identified in the text of any report.

Audio Recording

With your permission, we would like to make a recording of our interview to be sure we have accurately captured the information you share. We will not release the recordings to anyone outside the study team, and the recordings will be deleted at the end of the study.

More Information

If you would like more information about these interviews, you may contact Dr. Kimberly Kendziora at kkendziora@air.org or (202) 403-5391. For questions regarding your rights as a participant in this research, please contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at IRBChair@air.org or toll free at 1-800-634-0797.

Informed Consent

If you have read the information provided, asked any questions and received answers, and agree to participate in the study, please sign here.

OK to record the interview?  Yes  No

Signature: Date:

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According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is xxxx-xxxx. Public reporting burden for this collection is estimated to average 60 minutes per response.

American Institutes for Research Task Order 23: Study of School Climate Transformation Grants—B-1