Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) FAQ
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When is parent permission required for an FBA?
This is a highly individualized formal assessment process. Families must always be involved in, and communicated with throughout FBA/BSP processes when the resulting materials will determine changes in a student’s educational plan. Teams must obtain consent from families when completing any formal assessment or analysis on individual students, even when using existing information.
If multiple attempts to contact families have been unsuccessful, a team may make the decision to move forward if they believe the FBA/BSP is in the best interest of the student, but MUST document multiple diverse and multimodal attempts to obtain consent.
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If a parent refuses consent for a FBA, can we then proceed with the “Worksheet” without parent consent?
When requesting consent for an FBA, it would be best to explain both options. For example:
“We have concerns about A’s behavior. We would like to develop a plan to provide positive supports for learning appropriate behavior. We have two options. We can look at existing information to identify what we think are reasons for the behavior and what reasonable supports would be. Or, with your consent, we can gather additional information through observations and structured interviews and use that new information to develop a plan."
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When conducting an FBA what should we write as the evaluation procedures on the consent form when new information will be collected?
We must specify all components of the FBA we will be conducting. For example, you may write “Functional Behavior Assessment, including parent interview, staff interviews, student interview, reinforcement survey, observations, file review, and behavior data tracking.”
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Does the “Worksheet for Function Based Behavior Support Planning” meet the legal requirements for an FBA?
Yes, at a basic level. Oregon law requires that an FBA include a hypothesis statement about why the behaviors are happening. The competing pathway (S-A-B-C-F) portion of the worksheet is this hypothesis statement. There are circumstances that require a more in-depth analysis of a student’s behavior. See the question below for more information regarding when to conduct a more comprehensive FBA.
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What’s the difference between a function based worksheet and Functional Behavior Assessment?
The worksheet is what we use to organize our thoughts/experiences/impressions of the student’s situation, while the Functional Behavior Assessment is a formal assessment. A Functional Behavior Assessment is indicated in all of the situations below:
- if the team is unsure about the antecedents, consequences, or function of the behaviors so new comprehensive information is necessary to better understand where, when, and why the behaviors are happening.
- ‘worksheet for FBA-BSP” has been completed and implemented consistently for at least 4 weeks, but the behavior of concern has not been decreased to the specified criteria
- the student is engaging in a dangerous behavior in which student, staff or peers may be injured.
- a placement change is being considered due to behaviors of concern.
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If parents consented to an FBA and now a new behavior is being targeted that requires a new functional behavioral assessment either with worksheet or comprehensive data collection, is a new parent consent required?
Implementing a BSP includes ongoing assessment and review including obtaining information from the parents, teachers, and student regarding the impact of the interventions and collecting progress monitoring data. BSP plans will often need to be adjusted based on this ongoing assessment data. If the process is an ongoing process not separated by time or school years, then consent is not needed (i.e. At 6 week review meeting for behavior #1, team agrees the student is making progress with interventions and using alternative behavior so that behavior 1 is no longer significantly impacting the student’s learning or the learning of other students, but behavior #2 is, so FBA is completed on behavior #2). At 6 week review meeting for behavior #2, team agrees behavior #2 is no longer significantly impacting learning, but behavior #3 is. This is a continuous process that would not require additional consent.
On the other hand: FBA is conducted for behavior #1. Six months later or during the next school year, the team agrees behavior #2 is now a problem and an FBA is needed. These are separate processes, not a continuous cycle, so consent would be needed if new data collection is required.
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What district resources are available for teams seeking support in the FBA/BSP Process?
After students have received Tier I supports school wide with 80% fidelity, and have received Tier II interventions for six weeks, teams can contact:
- School Conduct Coordinator: Dana Riemer (503) 916-3711
- Assistant Director of School Climate and Discipline: Rick Kirschmann (503) 916-3121
- Special Education Program Administrators: Varies for each school, see your school’s organizational chart
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How does a school team request the assistance of a behavior coach to assist with FBA/BSP process?
For all students, contact Richard Kirschmann at (503) 916-3121.
For special education students, you can contact the Special Education Program Administrator for the school.