Review And Approval for Projects that Involve Students, Data Or Personnel from the

Hawaii Department of Education (DOE)

Faculty, students and/or researchers from UH who are planning to conduct research or research-evaluation, including collecting data (i.e. surveys, interviews, focus groups, assessment, implementing an intervention for research purposes, or using DOE databases) must have approval from both the UH Committee on Human Studies (CHS) and the DOE Systems Accountability Office, Office of the Superintendent. There are two different processes for (1) projects the researcher anticipates will require full IRB review (including those involving children under the age of 18), and 2) projects the researcher deems will be exempt after IRB review. 

NOTE: Graduate students must have advisor’s approval and signature before submission.

1. Expedited or full committee review—For projects submitted to UH CHS for either expedited or full committee review, potential investigators must apply simultaneously to both UH CHS and the Hawaii DOE. Investigators must submit two copies of the same application and attachments to both institutions. Both institutions will review and independently decide on approval of the application under their respective criteria and notify applicants of the approval decision from that institution. Applicants must have approval from both institutions to proceed with projects.

2. Exempt approval—For projects approved by CHS under exempt criteria, CHS will notify the DOE Systems Accountability Office of the name and e-mail address of the applicant, title of the project, approval date and approval criteria. The DOE will contact the applicant by e-mail to obtain additional information. Sending separate exempt applications to DOE is not required. However, the DOE will collect information from applicants and notify school administrators before the project can proceed. This will take time—applicants should start the process early.

Information on Exempt criteria:

Projects that fall under the concept of “action research” or “survey/interview,” primarily following one of two federal exempt criteria:

1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, involving normal educational practices, such as

(i) research on regular and special education instructional strategies, or

(ii) research on the effectiveness of or the comparison among instructional techniques, curricula, or classroom management methods.

NOTE: Not all projects having some of these qualities are deemed exempt. Exceptions to exempt approval include the use of video or audio recordings for use other than transcription (i.e., recordings may not be shown to anyone else to qualify for exempt status); segregating subgroups within a classroom for specific intervention or interaction (e.g., not involving the entire class in an activity that does not appear to be a regular classroom activity); using direct quotes from journals or art or class-based written assignments as part of the final product (i.e., not just for analysis, but for inclusion in the Plan B paper, thesis or dissertation); the use of minors outside of a single class (e.g., Involving students from different schools).

2) Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey procedures, interview procedures or observation of public behavior, unless:

(i) information obtained is recorded in such a manner that human subjects can be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects; and

(ii) any disclosure of the human subjects' responses outside the research could reasonably place the subjects at risk of criminal or civil liability or be damaging to the subjects' financial standing, employability, or reputation.

NOTE: If research involves anyone below the age of 18, this category does not apply and the research is not exempt. Criteria #2 is for DOE projects that primarily are interviews or surveys with parents, other teachers or administrators of the schools, on education focused projects—no one under age 18.

For more information, contact:

UH CHS 956-5007 www.hawaii.edu/irb

DOE Systems Accountability Office 735-8250 http://sao.k12.hi.us/planning/otherinfo.htm