September 30, 2016

Dear Families,
As you may already know, I am a graduate student in the Department of Early and Middle Grades
Education at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, working toward my M.Ed. in Early Childhood. As
the final part of my Masters degree program, I will be conducting an action research assignment to
improve parent engagement within our center.
For the next six weeks, I would like to include your family in my research project on the implementation
of parent engagement within the center.
During a six week period, your childs classroom will be observed during different periods of day (drop
off and pick up) and during special events where you and your family are involved in the classroom.
Informal interviews will occur twice during the six week period and will contribute to my understanding
of decisions on how we can better engage the families within our program. I will also be sending home a
survey for parents/caregivers to complete, regarding your experiences here at KinderCare. Finally, I will
be examining our current practices to understand ways in which we can involve the families more.
All data that I collect (observations, interviews, family surveys) will be kept confidential and no
references to childrens names or family members names or staff members will be used in my work.
Your familys participation in this project is completely voluntary. Those families who are participants
in my research will be observed and interviewed as they engage in classroom activities. If you choose for
your family to not participate you will simply not be interviewed and observations of your experiences
will not be recorded or used in my research and course work. The choice to participate or not will not
impact your status here at KinderCare in any way.
All information that is obtained during this research project will be kept strictly confidential. Your
familys name and any other information concerning your identity will be deleted from the research
information. Your familys confidentiality is most important and every effort will be made to insure that
this research remains confidential at all times.
The results of this study will be used for an online website that is required in my course, Early Childhood
Researcher, in the College of Education at WCU. Abbreviations will be substituted for the names of
families and the school. This helps protect confidentiality. The website is a private site, viewable by me,
my classmates and my professors only. I will be constructing a summary of my research project that will
be available online to all, however, family names and the name of our school will not be included in the
summary of my research.

In the space at the bottom of this letter, please indicate whether or not you allow your family to
participate in this project. Family surveys will be sent during the next few weeks as well. Simply
return your survey if you wish to allow your responses to be included in my research. Simply
discard the survey if you choose not to participate.

Please return one copy of this completed form as soon as possible. The second copy is to keep
for your records. If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact
me. Please keep a copy of this form for your records.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Furniss
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________ I agree to allow my family to participate in the interview and observations of experiences
during teacher interactions and center events. I understand there is no risk to my family and that I may
withdraw my consent at any time, without penalty.
________ I would rather my family not participate in the interviews and observations. I understand that
this decision will not negatively impact my familys status or participation in school experiences.
Parents signature and date:
_________________________________________________________________________________
If you have any questions about your familys participation or this research project, please contact me at
610-594-9511 or JF841399@wcupa.edu.