Do parental permission and child assent for research involving children have to occur at the same time or in any particular order?
The HHS regulations do not specify the order in which parental or guardian permission and child assent should be sought. Therefore, Institutional Review Boards (IRB) have the discretion to determine the appropriate order given the research and the context in which it will be conducted. In general, parental or guardian permission should be sought before seeking the assent of a child, particularly in more than minimal risk research, unless the requirement for obtaining parental or guardian permission can be waived. There might be some cases, however, involving minimal risk research, where it would be reasonable to seek child assent prior to seeking parental permission. For example, a school-based study of minimal risk (e.g., investigating children’s responses to music), could be posed to children in the school setting. Children could be asked if they wanted to participate and if so, sent home with a request for parental or guardian permission. In all cases, except when the requirement fo
