TABLE OF CONTENTS

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
	IDEA Rights and Requirements
	IEP Team Roles and Responsibilities
	Why a Functional Assessment of Behavior is Important
	Conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment
	Identifying the Problem Behavior
	Possible Alternative Assessment Strategies
	Techniques for Conducting the Functional Behavioral Assessment Indirect Assessment Direct Assessment Data Analysis Hypothesis Statement
	Individuals Assessing Behavior
	Behavior Intervention Plans
	Addressing Skill Deficits
	Addressing Performance Deficits
	Addressing Both Skill and Performance Deficits
	Modifying the Learning Environment
	Providing Supports
	Evaluating the Behavior Intervention Plan
	Summary
	Resources
	Appendix A
	Appendix B

IDEA RIGHTS AND REQUIREMENTS

The 1997 Amendments to IDEA are explicit in what they require of an IEP team addressing behavioral problems of children with disabilities:

The team should explore the need for strategies and support systems to address any behavior that may impede the learning of the child with the disability or the learning of his or her peers (614(d)(3)(B)(i));

In response to disciplinary actions by school personnel, the IEP team should, within 10 days, meet to formulate a functional behavioral assessment plan to collect data for developing a behavior intervention plan, or if a behavior intervention plan already exists, the team must review and revise it (as necessary), to ensure that it addresses the behavior upon which disciplinary action is predicated (615(k)(i)(B)); and

States shall address the needs of in-service and pre-service personnel (including professionals and paraprofessionals who provide special education, general education, related services, or early intervention services) as they relate to developing and implementing positive intervention strategies (653(c)(3)(D)(vi).

 

As schools explore educational options, many educators are being cast in unfamiliar roles and are acquiring new responsibilities. In the past, special educators provided classroom instruction to students with disabilities. More recently, their responsibilities, like those of their colleagues in general education, have enlarged to include professional collaboration to support the participation of students with disabilities in the general education curriculum.

Under the reauthorized IDEA, there is an increased emphasis upon not only teaching students with disabilities in the general education curriculum, but assessing their progress by means of appropriate instruments and procedures. In addition, demand to collaborate with all relevant education personnel to resolve behavior problems that may interfere with academic progress has increased. As members of IEP teams, general educators play an ever increasing role in collaboratively developing comprehensive management and instructional plans for students with disabilities.

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