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


CONCLUSIONS
Incentives and class visits can yield a high return rate of active parent consent forms for third-grade minority, urban, low-income students.
Ji
Peter
P
University of Illinois at Chicago, Institute for Health Research and Policy, USA. petji@uic.edu
Flay
Brian R
BR
Dubois
David L
DL
Brechling
Vanessa
V
Day
Joseph
J
Cantillon
Dan
D
D000328:Adult; D002641:Chicago; D002648:Child; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D032962:Consent Forms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D033282:Parental Consent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010290:Parents; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D014505:Urban Population