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Parent Consent

Key Points:

While determining which type of consent to use when surveying keep in mind:
  • You must have a school board policy in place regardless of the type of consent you use.
  • Active Consent must be used for grades K-6.
  • Passive Consent can be used for grades 7-12 in accordance with your school board's policy.
  • To determine if you can use passive consent, read Guidelines for Passive Consent (PDF).
  • Using Passive Consent can dramatically increase your response rates.
  • For tips on increasing consent returns, read our Tips for Raising Participation Flyer (PDF).
  • Examples of school board policy regarding active or passive consent can often be found by contacting your County Office of Education.
  • For information about getting a board policy in place contact Pat Mortenson at 800.266.3382 at the California School Board Association or contact your CHKS Regional Office.
Districts administering the the California Healthy Kids Survey are required to obtain parental consent. This can be done through two methods, active or passive consent.



Active Consent

Required in grades K-6

Under active consent a permission form is sent home with students. Parents/guardians must return the form in order to give their permission.
Download and modify active consent forms

Passive Consent

Can be used in grades 7-12

Under passive consent a form is sent home with students notifying parents about the survey. Parents/guardians return the form only if they do not wish for their child to participate.

PLEASE NOTE that certain requirements must be met in order to use passive consent in compliance with state and federal law. Before using passive consent make sure you have read the CHKS Guidelines for Passive Consent (PDF) in order to avoid the undesirable consequences of using passive consent inappropriately.
Download and modify passive consent forms

Need other translations?

CDE has had these consent forms translated into several Asian languages including Chinese (traditional and simplified), Hmong, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

You can download PDF versions of these translated forms in a convenient .zip file package. For editable versions of these translations contact your CHKS center.
Download Asian languages package