WG/UNICEF Child Functioning Module - Teacher Version (CFM-TV)

About the CFM-TV

Following the release of the Child Functioning Module (CFM) for surveys in 2016, the Washington Group on Disability Statistics and UNICEF developed a Teacher Version of the Child Functioning Module (CFM-TV). The CFM-TV can be used in national Education Management Information Systems, as well as other data collection efforts such as school-based surveys. It has the benefit of reduced costs compared with other data collection platforms since data collection occurs where children are known to be present. With the necessary caveats, the CFM-TV can also be used for program monitoring and evaluation. While the CFM is designed to be used as part of a household survey, with the mother or primary caregiver as the respondent, the CFM-TV is designed to be administered in schools, with a teacher as the respondent.

The CFM-TV consists of 20 questions for school-aged children (5 to 17 years). The questionnaire is designed to identify difficulties in a number of functional domains — seeing, hearing, mobility, fine motor functioning or dexterity, communication, learning, remembering, concentrating, accepting change, controlling behavior, making friends, and affect (anxiety and depression). The CFM for children 15-17 years and the CFM-TV are very similar in content, except for small differences that reflect the different administration settings and respondents.

The questions have undergone extensive review by experts to determine the quality of questions being asked and ascertain cultural understanding by respondents. The CFM-TV was tested in 2022-2023, across a number of different countries, using a variety of methods. Testing was also done in a variety of settings by different organizations, each of which had somewhat different data collection objectives.

The questionnaire was officially released in June 2024, along with the Inclusive Education Module. The launch of the questionnaires was marked at a side event to the 17^th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD hosted by UNICEF, the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, and the Australian Government (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade).