Parental notification, in lieu of active parental permission, is allowed when:

Parental notification, in lieu of active parental permission, is allowed when:

A. An IRB has approved a waiver of the requirement for parental permission.

B. The researcher anticipates a low response rate.

C. The superintendent of schools and the principals have approved the study.

D. The researcher has conducted a similar study at another institution.

Answer: A. An IRB has approved a waiver of the requirement for parental permission.

After getting a waiver of the requirement to get permission from the parent, notification to the parents suffices following approval from an IRB. In this way, it is an essential aspect of the research ethic when such research includes minors. The human subjects’ research body, which is commonly abbreviated as IRB, has to pay a lot of attention to many considerations before approving a waiver of such a requirement. Common ones are the risk level of the proposed research, the number of benefits expected from the research, and the practicality of conducting the study without the waiver. For instance, in minimal-risk research on dietary practices among adolescent students, an IRB may approve a waiver if active parental consent may compromise the sample in the school setting or lower the response rate due to the consent. Here, parents would be informed of the study and could choose to exempt their child from participating in it, contrary to the special consent required by the law. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that these are not easily approved waivers, and are only conducted where the risk is very low and the benefit of the study is high. This approach makes the IRB’s decision regarding a waiver significant because it does several things – Research participants’ rights and their well-being are safeguarded; useful research which might not be feasible otherwise gets done.