NIDA Fast Track (OMB Cntrl #0925-0655) - Letter to Principals (2)

Draft

Letter to Principals Explaining the Study

This should be on NIDA letterhead.

Dear Principal, (personalized with a name)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is writing to ask for your school’s help in an important study. We are approaching you because your school participated in the NIDA Chat Day event in 2010 and/or 2009. We initially talked with the Chat Day contact at your school about this study, and she/he indicated a willingness to assist us.

The NIDA for Teens website is a government resource for students on drug abuse and addiction. The purpose of the site is to provide teens with educational information on drug abuse in a format that appeals to them and in language that makes sense to them. We are seeking student and teacher satisfaction with how we are doing this. We have developed surveys to elicit this information and are requesting consent for your school to participate.

We anticipate the surveys will take about 30 minutes. If you consent to your school participating, we need you to contact the teachers and guidance counselors you suggest and to obtain their consent to participate in the study, and to assist with obtaining the consent of parents for students. Although guidance counselors most likely do not teach a class, we would welcome their participation in the teacher survey. You will need to ask your teachers to distribute consent forms to parents of students in the classes. We are presuming that most students will take the survey as a home work assignment, and therefore assent forms are not needed. If you make it possible for students to take the survey during class time we will provide you with forms for their signed assent .

The surveys – one for teachers, one for students – are web-based and short, although teachers and students will need to spend some time viewing and experiencing selected modules of the NIDA for Teens site before they answer the questions. No personal identifiable information of any participant will be used in the study, and the survey information will be analyzed in the aggregate across all participating schools.

If you are willing to help, this is what will happen:

1. You will return the enclosed consent form giving permission for your school to participate in this government study and indicating how many guidance counselors e and how many teachers in your school you would like to volunteer for participation in our study.

2. We will send you a packet containing consent forms for teachers/guidance counselors and for students’ parents. An example is enclosed.

3. Our contractor will give teachers and guidance counselors instructions on how to participate in the survey.

4. We will ask you to distribute the packets to the guidance counselors and teachers. The teachers will distribute and collect consent forms that parents will sign, and the signed assent forms of the students.

5. We ask that you keep these consent and assent forms until the study has been completed.

6. You will inform the Contractor of the number of students per class with signed consent and assent forms, and the number of teachers and guidance counselors with signed consent forms. These will be the study participants.

7. The Contractor will return login IDs for these participants, and you will implement the distribution of them to the participants of the study.

We greatly appreciate your attention to this, and we are hopeful you will choose to assist us with your school’s participation. We will give your school a $25 Apple gift card for your participation. If you have questions about this letter, please contact one of us below, or our contractor, Dr. Bohne Silber, at 888-745-2371.

Sincerely yours,

Brian Marquis

National Institute on Drug Abuse

Telephone: 301-594-6184

Genevieve deAlmeida

National Institute on Drug Abuse

Telephone: 301-594-6802