Racial and Ethnic Disparities Program Assessment Tool Consent Form

The National Drug Court Resource Center (NDCRC) within American University’s Justice Programs Office created a Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool. This tool aims to provide local treatment courts with an instrument to capture information about their court’s systems and processes focusing on areas where racial and ethnic disparities may exist. Based on the responses, the tool will provide recommendations on ways to reduce RED.

Research Procedures

The RED Program Assessment Tool is a self-assessment tool for treatment courts that includes a series of open- and closed-ended questions designed to identify areas in treatment court’s system and processes where RED may exist. Questions should be answered for one treatment court and completed by team members who are familiar with the program’s operations, procedures, services, and participants.

Completion of the assessment immediately produces recommendations to the participant for ways in which the program could reduce racial/ethnic inequities. Additionally, stored data will be analyzed to develop publications and resources to inform and advance the field. Court participation will remain confidential; participating court information will not be shared with any entity. Publications will report the results in aggregate (e.g., 10% of programs have a low representation of females and African Americans among admissions).

Risks

There are no foreseeable risks for taking part in this study. Participation is entirely voluntary. Participation is confidential. Individual-level data is not collected. Data will be stored on a secure American University server; only RED research staff will have access to the assessment files.

Benefits

Participation in this study will enable a court to determine successes and opportunities for improvement regarding racial and ethnic disparities in their treatment court program. Participation will also contribute to the improvement of the field through the development of resources and publications raising awareness about RED and recommendations for reducing RED in treatment court programs.

Confidentiality

A program’s participation in the study will remain confidential, and no identifying information is collected from the members on the participating teams. Whether a program participated in the RED Program Assessment Tool will not be disclosed. Data will be stored on a secure American University server; only RED research staff will have access to the assessment data. Publications for the field will only report the results in aggregate (e.g., 10% of programs have a low representation of females and African Americans among admissions) and, again, not name participating court programs.

Participation

Your participation is voluntary. You need not answer any question that you would prefer not to answer, and you may withdraw from the assessment at any time and for any reason.

Contact

The National Drug Court Resource Center (NDCRC) is conducting this assessment. NDCRC can be reached at (202) 885-2875 or ndcrc@american.edu if you have a question or comment.

Please contact American University’s Office of Research Integrity (ORI) at (202) 885-3447 for any questions regarding rights as a participant.