What is a Functional Behavior Assessment?

FBA's are created if a behavior trend is noticed by a student.  After a child has gone through all tiers of problem solving, the third and final tier is putting an FBA in place.  During the FBA process the educational team for the child collects data that will provide base line data to determine if the child qualifies for a BIP.  During the FBA process you are able to identify antecedents, triggers, duration of behavior, level of behavior, frequency, and able to make comments about the behavior and situation. 

A FBA is a tool used collect data on a specific behavior. It looks at the function of a behavior or what the underlying cause is . It looks at the frequency and duration of the behavior. We use an FBA for special education students and disciplinary reasons to remove a student from school. 

A Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)is a process used to identify problematic behavior in students and why the behaviors are occuring and how to change the behaviors.  Teachers both Special Ed and General ed. along with admin, counselors, and psychologists  gather information regarding the targeted behavior. Instead of identifying a general behavior, an FBA focuses on a specific behavior. Teachers track and gather information on the behavior -  where it occurs, how often and the duration of the behavior. Information on what took place directly prior to the student exhibiting the behavior is also collected. The school psych. or behavior specialist will take the information and with the team work on creating a BIP. Often an FBA is used as part of a Special Education evaluation and for kids with serious behavior concerns that are being disciplined frequently and removed from school often. Students do not need and IEP or 504 plan to have an FBA created. 

Functional Behavior assessment is a process that helps determine why a student may act a certain way or to determine the cause of a behavior.  It is used to help determine why a student may be showing concerning behaviors and assist in how to change the behavior. 

There are 2 situations in which an FBA is used for , first being a school evaluation for special education. To assist in the answer of does the students' behavior get in the way of learning. The second is when a student has  behavior that is leading to discipline or being removed from school.

Some kids have a harder time learning due to behavioral challenges. An FBA is an approach to trying to uncover why the behavior occurs in the classroom setting. It uses methods outside traditional classroom approaches to investigate and uncover the why to the behavior. An FBA is not for all but usually fall under two categories: evaluation for special education or, a student is removed from the school for discipline reasons. 

FBA is the tool used to collect data on a specific behavior in school. The function (why) of the behavior often is the result of the frequency and duration of identified behaviors. Consequences after behavior are also documented to determine likelihood of repeat behavior. THe goal of the FBA is to use the dat to create BIP for the student. Typical situations using FBA include disruptive behavior, non compliant behavior, or dangerous actions. 

An FBA tries to figure out what’s behind behavior challenges. The basic idea is that behavior serves a purpose. Whether kids know it or not, they act in certain ways for a reason. If schools and families know what’s causing a behavior, they can find ways to change it.

An FBA is a way to help address a student's behavior that is impacting their performance or causing a disruption in a classroom. The team targets a specific behavior to track. It is used to find out why a student is displaying unexpected behaviors so that the team can work together to develop a plan on changing the behavior. A BIP may need to be created next to create strategies and interventions to improve the behavior. The team will later meet to see how the plan is going and make any necessary changes.

A Functional Behavioral Assessment is a process to identify problem behaviors and developing specific interventions to improve or eliminate those behaviors. An FBA is conducted to gather information and evaluate students with serious behavior issues.  An FBA consists of information specifically gathering procedures and data that results in a hypothesis about the function of that behavior.