Research Request Applications

The York County School Division receives multiple requests from individual and organizations to conduct research studies each year. While YCSD recognizes the benefit of instructional research programs and strives to support as many requests as possible, the division must ensure that research studies and surveys do not interfere with instruction or require excessive pupil or staff time.

External research is defined as research initiated by individuals not employed by the school system or by division employees who want to perform research for non-job-related purposes (e.g. research required by a college course).

The following guidelines describe the general principles underlying the review process and the procedure to follow in submitting a research proposal for review.

Research Requirements

Each request must include the following information before the request can be reviewed:

Research topic
Purpose of study
Documentation of approval to conduct research from school of record
Research methodology & data to be collected (including copies of surveys & survey questions)
Expected completion date of the final report
Participation needs
Relevance and value of research to YCSD

The division is not responsible for identifying participants or facilitating contact with staff or students. Once the researcher has received an approval letter, it will be the researcher's responsibility to contact the school staff cited in the application and make arrangements with appropriate personnel for the implementation of the research project.

Requests will be reviewed by the division's review committee September 1, December 1 and March 1. Please submit applications prior to these dates to ensure prompt review.

Application Evaluation Components

Relevance: The research proposal's correlation to mission and goals of the school division

Value: Demonstrable evidence of the research proposal's clear, direct and immediate benefit to the division in terms of informing educational practice.

Compliance: The division is very limited in the ability to provide student data. All requests must meet federal regulations concerning student records, privacy, and participation in research studies (see FERPA, HIPPA, PPRA). Our main goal is to protect the rights of our students and their families from unauthorized or inappropriate access to them and their school records for research purposes.

Burden: The division will only accommodate research that requires a reasonable amount of time and effort from division staff. Requests to conduct research during regular instructional time must correlate to approved YCSD curriculum and current instructional practices within the division. Research should not take time away from instructional activities. *Research proposals that require parental consent will not be approved.

Request Process

All requests to conduct research should be initiated by submitting the Research Request form, rather than contact with individual staff members or administrators.

The completed form should be submitted electronically to Lindsey Narney.