Consent form return rates for third-grade urban elementary students.

Incentives and class visits can yield a high return rate of active parent consent forms for third-grade minority, urban, low-income students.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To maximize active parent consent form return rates for third-grade minority, urban students enrolled in predominantly low-income elementary schools in Chicago, Ill. METHODS: Research staff used a class incentive and class visits to retrieve consent forms from students. RESULTS: Of the 811 third-grade students, 98% returned a form and 79% (n = 627) of those students' parents provided an affirmative response. Return rates did not vary by students' ethnicity or by the schools' demographic variables. CONCLUSION: Incentives and class visits can yield a high return rate of active parent consent forms for third-grade minority, urban, low-income students.