Have you heard of a special education FBA before but are unsure what it means? Let’s dig into this topic, defining it, answering frequent wonderings, and even explore how to write one. Ideal information on an FBA for special education staff or other student services personnel.
FBA Special Education Definition
Let’s start off with the basics: what does FBA mean in special education lingo?
FBA stands for ‘functional behavioral assessment’.
This is the process that identifies a specific behavior that is producing unwanted outcomes.
In the most simple terms, an FBA is geared at figuring out the behavior by identifying it and then the ‘why’ behind it. Finding out the ‘why’ behind the behavior is so important. There can be a million reasons as to why a child is doing something. It could be from something in the environment, sensory reasons, social interactions, dysregulation in the child’s body, and so many other things. For more information on why FBAs are important and examples, check out this article.
Can You Do an FBA Without an IEP?
The short answer to the question “can you do an FBA without an IEP?” is yes.
When you think about what is an FBA in school, it is just documenting behavior to figure out if there is something specific. Behavior can still be looked at whether a child has an IEP or not.
Sometimes school districts want to look at behavior for a student who is struggling as an intervention. This is commonly done to try to prevent the child from needing Special Education services. (Before I go on, I’d like to point out that receiving Special Education servicing isn’t bad, but if a school district can prevent it by putting in safeguards, routines, or doing interventions, that is best for everyone.) When looking at doing an FBA, the school personnel is again looking at a specific behavior or a specific time during the day to see what is happening. Again, they are looking for patterns so the underlying reason behind the unwanted behavior is revealed.
FBA Special Education Sample
Visual learning: who would really benefit from a sample FBA? I got you covered!
Below is an image of an FBA in special education that I had used with a student.
You can see the identifying information that was used in the top portion of the form.
The middle goes into the behavior that was observed. There is data on what was happening before the behavior along with what happened after. This spot is to help you figure out the ‘why’ behind the behavior. The best way to complete these sections is to do observations of the child.
The last part holds baseline data (see more information on this below) along with a goal for what behavior would be appropriate.
The next section will give tips on writing up a functional behavioral assessment like this one.
Write an FBA for Special Education
Wondering how you can write your own FBA?
If you choose to use a pre-made form (like above), you can just fill in the boxes. Make sure to get some background identifying information on the student. This will make sure that anyone reading the form will know who it is about.
Another important step is observing and documenting behavior. This will help to see any patterns. Patterns could include time or day, what is happening right before the behavior, or even if it takes place on a certain day(s) of the week.
Observations can also be helpful in seeing things that may have not been noticed before. When you are intentionally watching a student for a specific reason, it is surprising what things you will pick up on. This is often a noticing something that takes place before an unwanted behavior occurs. It could be something small that happens unintentionally or it could be a social interaction piece that wasn’t picked up on before.
All this information can be super helpful in knowing the ‘why’ behind the behavior. Remember, only when you understand the ‘why’ behind the behavior is when you can look at putting things into place to change that behavior.
If writing an FBA sounds like a daunting task, check out this free 5 step guide. Following these steps will help you to figure out tricky behavior while writing up an amazing behavior plan. Plus there are some free data collection forms too. Get this sent straight to your inbox so you can stop wasting your time and get a grip on unwanted student behavior. Just tell me where to send it to. 👇
Special Education FBA BIP
The next step after writing up your functional behavioral assessment is to make a behavior intervention plan (BIP).
A BIP is a written plan to modify the current behavior. Having the plan written out allows others to see the ‘why’ behind the behavior as well as what is being done to modify the behavior.
When figuring out how to change the behavior, keep in mind that it works best when you replace the unwanted behavior with a different behavior that is more wanted. An example of this is if a student swears throughout the school day, have them say a different word in its place that is less offensive (such as “shoot”). They are still saying something when frustrated but what they are saying is more socially acceptable. When you replace one behavior with another, it is a much faster, smoother, and much more effective process than just trying to eliminate a behavior altogether.
Things to Include
A few things to make sure to include are:
- identifying information
- baseline data
- steps people who are working with the child should take when the behavior happens
- previously used interventions to change the behavior
Use the data you collected from doing observations in the FBA stage. ‘Baseline’ data is this starting point data. Having a baseline will help to monitor the effectiveness of the plan. Keep in mind that any new plan needs at least 4 weeks (research actually suggests 6 weeks) to see if it is effective or not.
Looking to write up an effective BIP (and FBA) but worried that you won’t have all the necessary information or just super tight on time because you also have to do something else (like teaching students) during the workday? Then check out this FBA & BIP forms resource. You’ll get 3 editable functional behavioral assessments & behavior intervention forms along with 7 different data collection forms. Plus it comes in both a printable version and editable within Google format. This paired with the free 5 step guide to writing an amazing behavior plan (get it sent directly to your inbox by clicking here) is truly everything you need to get on top of difficult and unwanted student behavior. Grab this resource here.
More Special Education FBA Information
The Wisconsin Department of Education has a great framework that goes in-depth with explaining not only what an FBA is but also behavior as a whole.
Portland Public Schools has a short and simple checklist of who is responsible for different parts of the FBA (and a behavior plan). This would be super helpful during a team approach or when multiple people are working with the child.
If you are wondering more about Behavior Intervention Plans, check out this post. The definition, important parts that are included, and how to write one can be located here.
Happy Teaching!
