Institutional Review Board (IRB): Parental Permission and Minor Assent

Visit Recruitment page for information about Recruitment materials for parents/guardians and minors.

 Email us at irb@nu.edu    

 Visit the IRB Office Hours page

You may need to write a parental permission and minor assent document if all of the following are true:

1. You plan to conduct human subjects research
2. You will be recruiting participants who are age 17 or under
3. Your study does not encompass normal education activities in an everyday educational setting (If so, see this page about Information Letters)

Since minors are a protected, vulnerable population, this kind of study would likely be Greater Than Minimal Risk (GTMR) and take longer to receive approval.

Using a required template is not plagiarism. The minor assent and parental permission templates have language that is required by federal regulations. You should not change or revise any of the template language.

You will upload your parental permission and minor assent documents to your IRB application.

The documents you upload to your IRB application should be ready to send to the participants. Double-check the following:

• Don't change or reword any of the required template language
• Remove all blue highlighting, template instructions, and optional sections that aren't applicable to your study
• Remove any Track Changes or comments from your chair or the IRB
• Don't include any labeling or formatting from your dissertation (Appendix, etc.)