CONSENT FORM

You are invited to take part in a research study about California school psychologists’ advocacy efforts and their use of NASP resources. This form is part of a process called “informed consent” to allow you to understand this study before deciding whether to take part.

This study seeks at least 500 volunteers who are:

·       Credentialed school psychologists

·       Work within the state of California

This study is being conducted by a researcher named Tess Moran, who is a doctoral student at Walden University. You might already know the researcher as a student, school psychologist, or program specialist, but this study is separate from that role.

Study Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to determine the predictability of California school psychologists’ advocacy efforts related to contractual caseloads based on their region, the type of position they hold within their district or organization, and their use of NASP resources.

Procedures:

This study will involve you completing the following steps:

·       Complete an anonymous online survey (10 minutes)

Here are some sample items:

• I advocate for reduced caseloads within the field of school psychology.
• I use NASP resources (i.e. Policy Playbook, webinars, articles, etc.) as an advocacy tool to inform others about policy priorities.
• Describe your current job title.
• In which California county is your job located?

Voluntary Nature of the Study:

Research should only be done with those who freely volunteer. So, everyone involved will respect your decision to join or not. No one at the California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) will treat you differently based on whether you volunteer or not.

If you decide to join the study now, you can still change your mind later. You may stop at any time.

Risks and Benefits of Being in the Study:

Being in this study could involve some risk of the minor discomforts that can be encountered in daily life such as sharing sensitive information, psychological discomforts, legal ramifications, or professional ramifications. With the protections in place, this study would pose minimal risk to your wellbeing. Should you require support as a result of your participation in this study, please see a list of resources below:

Psychological: 9-8-8 (National Suicide Hotline)

Legal: https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Public/Need-Legal-Help/Free-Legal-Help

Please note, this researcher is not responsible for providing the participant with specific referrals nor are they responsible for any costs associated with these resources. The participant will assume full responsibility for locating the needed resource and will assume full financial responsibility for said resources.

This study offers no direct benefits to individual volunteers. The aim of this study is to benefit society by informing policies to reflect caseload numbers that would allow school psychologists to support the growth of student. Once the analysis is complete, the researcher will disseminate the overall results by sharing the  Scholarworks (a publication of Walden University research) via the following webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/schoolpsychadvocacy-research/home

Payment:

The researcher will not be offering compensation for your participation in this study.

Privacy:

The researcher is required to protect your privacy. Your identity will be kept anonymous, within the limits of the law. The researcher will not ask for your name at any time or link your responses to your contact information. The researcher will not use your personal information for any purposes outside of this research project. Also, the researcher will not include your name or anything else that could identify you in the study reports. If the researcher were to share this dataset with another researcher in the future, the dataset would contain no identifiers so this would not involve another round of obtaining informed consent. Data will be kept secure by the use of password protection. Data will be kept for a period of at least 5 years, as required by the university.

 Contacts and Questions:

You can ask questions of the researcher by emailing tess.moran@waldenu.edu. If you want to talk privately about your rights as a participant or any negative parts of the study, you can call Walden University’s Research Participant Advocate at 612-312-1210 or irb@mail.waldenu.edu. Walden University’s approval number for this study is 10-04-22-0674736. It expires on October 3, 2023.

 You might wish to retain this consent form for your records. You may ask the researcher or Walden University for a copy at any time using the contact info above.

Obtaining Your Consent

If you feel you understand the study and wish to volunteer, please indicate your consent by clicking “Next” below.