What is a Functional Behavioral Assessment and How is it Used? An

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What is a Functional Behavioral Assessment

and How Is It Used? An Overview for Parents

When a child with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) has challenging behaviors in school that are not

improving, parents may request a re-evaluation to more closely examine the behaviors of concern.

As part of that re-evaluation, a district may conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) to identify

special education and related services and develop or modify a behavioral intervention plan.

What is an FBA?

e FBA is a structured data gathering process an IEP team uses to help identify positive behavior interventions

and supports to be used in the school. An FBA is used to determine the answers to the following three questions:

• Why does the student have challenging behavior?

• What reinforces the challenging behavior?

• What positive interventions help decrease the challenging behavior and increase the desired behavior.

When is an FBA required?

Federal law requires an FBA whenever a child with a disability has an educational placement change for

disciplinary reasons in the following instances:

1. When a child is removed from school for more than 10 consecutive days for behavior that is a

manifestation of the student’s disability.

2. When a child is removed for more than 10 school days for conduct that is not a manifestation of the

disability but the IEP team determines that an FBA is necessary.

3. When a child is placed in an interim alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days for

behavior involving a dangerous weapon, illegal drugs or iniction of serious bodily injury.

Are there other times to develop an FBA?

When positive behavior interventions and supports are eective, your child should be making progress on the

IEP goals. If he or she is not making progress, or if there are new behavioral challenges that are keeping your

child from making progress, parents should think about requesting a new FBA.

You may also request an FBA if your child’s challenging behaviors interfere with other children and their ability

to learn. It is always best to put your request in writing and keep a copy for yourself.

What happens next?

Aer receiving your written request, the IEP team would then meet, review the behavioral concerns, and

determine the need for an FBA. Sometimes the IEP team wants to consider new or dierent positive behavioral

interventions, supports, or strategies. Sometimes they may agree that it is necessary to conduct a new FBA.

Who collects data for the FBA?

e IEP team.

What are the steps in conducting an FBA?

1. Identify and agree on the behavior(s) that need to change. e identication process begins with

describing the challenging behaviors so that everyone understands the concern. If a child has many

problem behaviors, it is important to focus on those that are the most serious.

2. Determine where the behaviors do and do not occur. e team may conduct interviews, perform

observations, and discuss the following questions:

• What is dierent about the places where the behaviors do not occur?

• What is dierent about the places where the problem behaviors do occur?

• Are the problem behavior(s) related to how the child responds to the teacher or peers?

• Does the number of other students present, or the diculty of the schoolwork, cause a problem?

• Does the time of day or a child’s mood aect the behavior? Are there daily problems for the child

(such as on the bus in the morning, or challenges with peers in the hallway)?

• Do the behaviors occur in a speciﬁc set of circumstances or a specic setting?

• What specic events seem to support or inuence the problem behaviors?

3. Collect information on the child’s performance from as many sources as possible. ere may be other

places to get information about the child’s challenging behaviors. at may include a review of previous

assessment data, behavior incident reports, and other documented information the school has about the

child’s behavior. Parents also might share information from other assessments including mental health

providers. While this is good information to know, parents should be knowledgeable about how much

private health information they should share.

4. Develop an informed guess about why problem behaviors occur (the function of the behaviors). Using

all the information gathered through observation and review of data, an idea of why the behavior occurs is

stated. is helps predict where and why your child’s problem behaviors are most and least likely to occur.

5. Identify behaviors that can be taught and supported within the school and that provide your child with

positive alternatives to the problem behavior(s).

How do you use information from the FBA in your child’s IEP?

Children who are using negative behavior can benet from learning new ways to act. e IEP can include goals

for learning alternative, more positive ways to respond when they are frustrated, angry, or afraid. A plan for

using positive behavioral interventions should also be in place as part of the IEP process for your child.

Once your child’s FBA is completed, you should nd these changes made to the IEP:

1. Goals that teach replacement behaviors. Children can be taught to recognize their triggers and learn

new skills to use in place of the challenging behavior(s) they previously used.

2. A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). is plan includes specic strategies for modifying the

curriculum, environment, activities, or interactions with the child to prevent occurrences of the

challenging behavior.

It should include positive reinforcement and supports when your child demonstrates that he or she is using

the new skills in place of the challenging behavior(s).

Please note: It is important also to know that a positive Behavior Intervention Plan is NOT a plan to

determine what happens to a student who violates a rule or code of conduct. at would more appropriately

be called a discipline plan.

For additional information on positive behavior interventions, functional behavioral assessment, and related

topics, please contact:

PACER Center

PACER.org

Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

pbis.org

Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning

csefel.vanderbilt.edu/

Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI)

challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/

Minnesota Department of Education

education.state.mn.us/mde/index.html

IDEA.gov

https://sites.ed.gov/idea

See PACER’s companion handout, Examples of Positive Behavioral Intervention Strategies:

PACER.org/parent/php/php-c215b.pdf