Free instruments
Tier 2 measures ask for a reported change. Each instrument below has a form you can link to and a license sentence quoted from its publisher. Check the quote before you rely on it.
- Free, with conditions 1. Free to use under stated conditions; read the quoted license before using it.
- Screening only 1. Cleared for screening. It is not built to show change over time.
No cleared instrument: victim safety
No cleared, validated, free outcome instrument exists for victim safety. HARK is a screen for identifying partner violence, not a measure of change, and the other candidates need permission that was not confirmed. The funder's own item or a partner record is the substitute.
- HARK (4 items) as a screen only, with no verified threshold for program-related improvement
- CASR-SF (15 abuse items) needs the author's permission before use
- The funder's own reporting item, or a partner record such as a court or advocacy-agency record under a written agreement
SourceCleared instruments, best rights class first 2
Composite Abuse Scale-Revised, Short Form (CASR-SF)
Free, with conditionsLicense wording
“There is no fee to use this scale, but permission must be obtained.”
Free to use under stated conditions; read the quoted license before using it.
IPV severity/frequency
- Scoring
- Past-year frequency 0-5; if 11 or more of 15 items answered, mean frequency x 15 gives 0-75. Higher = greater abuse.
- Named by funders
- No US grant mandate verified.
- Validity
- Ford-Gilboe et al., 2016, BMJ Open 6:e012824; DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012824.
- Caveat
- EN verified. Obtain author permission before use. Each abuse item has lifetime and recent-frequency responses, increasing burden. Twelve-month recall limits short follow-up interpretation.
Form License source
HARK
Screening onlyLicense wording
“The original article's license "permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction," with attribution. Applying it to the authors' own question table is an explicit inference; no separate excluded credit line was identified.”
Cleared for screening. It is not built to show change over time.
IPV identification
- Scoring
- Yes=1, no=0; sum 0-4; 1 or more is a positive screen.
- Named by funders
- A Minnesota family-violence-prevention connection surfaced, but its state page did not open: unverified.
- Validity
- Sohal, Eldridge & Feder, 2007, BMC Family Practice 8:49; sensitivity 81%, specificity 95% in the study sample.
- Caveat
- EN verified. Validated identification screen; no verified responsiveness threshold for program-related safety improvement.
Form License source
Not recommended: rights unresolved 2
Permission to use these was not confirmed. Do not put them in a proposal until you have it in writing.
- Rights unresolved Measure of Victim Empowerment Related to Safety (MOVERS) EN/ES forms verified; many translations listed. The owner page and older manual use different response coding; resolve version and permission before use. Source
- Rights unresolved Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) EN form available. Form availability and validation do not resolve reuse rights. Source
Looks free, is not 15
Each of these circulates widely and carries a licensing restriction. The wording is quoted from the publisher's page.
- Client Satisfaction Questionnaire, CSQ-8. Use requires "express written permission" and "remission of use fees." Applies to service and research use. It also measures satisfaction, not outcome change. Licensing page
- Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, MMAS-8 / MMAS-4. Owner license pricing posts fees of $7 per MMAS-8 administration and $4 per MMAS-4 administration, with other licensing arrangements. Licensing page
- Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, CD-RISC. The author's request form refers to "terms of use and payment details"; PhenX confirms a licensing agreement is required. Current owner-site pricing is unverified because those sites did not open. Licensing page
- Outcome Rating Scale, ORS. Agency and group paper licenses carry fees; electronic or digital use is excluded from that license. Not universally paid, but not blanket-free for a nonprofit agency. Licensing page
- Session Rating Scale, SRS. Same agency-fee and electronic-use restrictions as the ORS. It also measures therapeutic alliance rather than participant outcomes. Licensing page
- SDQ embedded in your digital product. Electronic reproduction requires authorization and may involve payment. This does not invalidate the conditional paper-use entry in the instrument list. Licensing page
- PRAPARE embedded in a platform. Developer agreements are listed at $5,000 per year (regular) or $10,000 per year (enterprise). Royalty-free end-user agreements are a separate category. These are the published 2024 terms, not a verified 2026 quotation. Licensing page
- North Carolina Family Assessment Scale, General Services (NCFAS-G). The license is issued to the purchasing agency, and cost depends on the number of workers using it. Viewing a sample is not permission to administer. Licensing page
- Parenting Stress Index, 4th ed., Short Form (PSI-4-SF). The publisher's purchase page lists paid materials. Its 36 items also exceed the 30-item length limit. Licensing page
- BASC-3 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS). The publisher page lists paid forms and digital administrations and Qualification Level B. Short administration and simple completion do not make it public domain. Licensing page
- Drug Abuse Screening Test, DAST-10. The instrument is under copyright: "Copyright 1982 by Harvey A. Skinner, PhD, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada." The PhenX page allows reproduction "for non-commercial use (clinical, research, training purposes)" with credit to the author, and says it "may be obtained through" CAMH. Conditional, not unrestricted; CAMH's own terms were not opened. Licensing page
- Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory. The publisher sells it: the Pearson page lists the BDI-2 Complete Kit (Print) at $195.70, with items from $3.90, and shows Qualification level B. Licensing page
- Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). PAR publishes it and the site states "All rights reserved." A modified version requires a permission request to PAR. Licensing page
- Outcomes Star (family of Stars). The site refers to licence holders and states "all Outcomes Star licence holders must complete our core training programme." A licence is required; the page opened does not state fees. Licensing page
- PROMIS short forms embedded in an electronic platform. The PROMIS terms state "Permission to use PROMIS INSTRUMENTS does NOT grant permission to modify the wording or layout of items," or "to distribute to others for a fee, or to translate items into any other language." The need for HealthMeasures Electronic Administration Permission (HEAP) when embedding in a platform comes from secondary sources and was not found in the terms page. Licensing page