Functional Behavioral Assessments & Positive Behavioral Interventions

In this 30 minute video, Dr. Willow Hozella and Ashley Harned discuss Functional Behavior Assessments and the development of behavior interventions to teach new behaviors that will replace problematic behavior as well as decrease and eventually eliminate problematic behavior.

Prior to watching the video,  you may wish to download the three documents linked in the buttons below as reference materials.

There are many additional resources to support this process following the Q&A below the video. You can also take a short, self-quiz to test your understanding of the material by clicking on the button immediately below the video.

Q&A

Q: Who needs to receive a behavioral assessment?

A: All students who are seated in an AEDY program, regardless of identification, must receive a behavioral assessment within five (5) days of being seated in the program.

Q: When should the behavioral assessment(s) be delivered to students?

A: At least one behavioral assessment must be delivered within five (5) days of the student being seated in the program. Some programs choose to deliver additional assessments later during the student's placement to gather additional data - this is a local choice, not a requirement.

Q: Who needs to have individualized measurable behavior goals?

A: All students who are seated in an AEDY program, regardless of identification, must have written individualized measurable behavioral goals within five (5) days of being seated in the program. This is part of the initial Formal Periodic Review process. Read more about Formal Periodic Reviews here.

Q: What should be considered when writing a student's individualized measurable behavior goals?

A: Consider the student's behavior of placement and any additional data available on the student, including their behavioral assessment(s) and documents provided by the sending LEA. The student's behavioral goals should be highly-individualized, measurable, and positive so that your staff can clearly state whether the goals have been met by the individual student. Remember that students may only remain in placement if they have not yet met their behavioral goals related to the cause of placement, so writing these goals should be the priority.

Q: Can the individualized measurable behavior goals include academic goals?

A: Yes - it is appropriate to write and track academic goals, but remember that these goals may not be used to determine the student's placement status. It is best practice to write "Not required" or similar next to these additional goals.

Q: Can the individualized measurable behavior goals include behavioral goals not related to the cause of placement?

A: Yes - it is appropriate to write and track additional behavioral goals (e.g. program norms), but remember that these goals may not be used to determine the student's placement status. It is best practice to write "Not required" or similar next to these additional goals.

Q: If the student was placed for weapon or drug violations, does that mean their only behavioral goal should be to not have these things on their person?

A: No - these goals can be tricky to write because you must consider the reason the student exhibited these behaviors in the first place. Take, for example, a student who has brought a knife to school. This student may have brought the knife to school because they planned to go hunting with a friend after school, planned to cause harm to a classmate, or felt they needed a weapon for protection. Each of these reasons denotes significantly different behavioral reasoning, so it's important to talk to the student and the sending LEA to understand why this behavior occurred, then write behavioral goals (that are measurable) and map out a support plan to help the student meet these goals and improve their behavior. Learn more about goal writing here.

Behavior Intervention Resources

Each collapsible section below includes multiple resources to support the FBA and Positive Behavior Intervention process. Click on the document titles to access and download each or, use the button below to download a zip file of all the documents linked below.