What is a Functional Behavior Assessment?

A FBA is an approach to figure out why a student acts a certain way. It uses different methods to understand whats behind behavior challenges. 

An Functional Behavior Assessment, or FBA, is a document that allows Adults, Families, Teachers, and Staff to help a student figure out why they are acting a way. They are typically used when teachers and parents are seeing changes in behavior, that could be violent, to self or others, or that is not typical for the child. An FBA is is used mainly in schools for two reasons, for a student who has classified as needing special education help or for a students who has been disciplined or removed from a school building.

An FBA is used to define, analyze and find a reason behind a behavior that a student is presenting. An FBA is used to give a bigger picture into what the behavior is and why the behavior is occurring.  FBAs are generally used for students with 504s and IEPs who are presenting with a new behavior.  The analysis looks at all parts of the learning environment.  

A Functional Behavior Assessment is an assessment that help adults decide why a student acts a certain way. It's an assessment that can be used once a behavior is defined. It's generally used to identify the problem in order for adults to figure out how to make it better. For example, when a student disrupts the classroom when it's designated independent reading time, a teacher can record this and begin to have conversations with other adults in the school to help her form an FBA to figure out what the problem is for that particular student. 

The FBA is an approach to figuring out why a certain student acts a certain way,  It uses different methods to understand what's behind the behavior change.

In an FBA the school assessment team defines the behavior.  They gather and analyze the information. They find the reason for the behavior and they make a plan.

An FBA can be part of a school evaluation for special ed.  It is also used when a student is disciplined or removed from school.

An FBA is a Functional Behavioral Assessment. It is a used to assess why a student is having a behavioral issue.  The idea behind is that the behavior is communicating there there is an issue (reason why). Once the reasons can be evaluated, the team can find ways to change the behavior. Once he team defines the student behavior, it can find out why it is happening (when, where?  where not, how often, who does it involve, what happens before or after ht behavior). The third step is to make a plan. This plan is called the BIP (Behavior  Intervention Plan) 

A Functional Behavior Assessment is a process to figure out what is causing the behavior. It is used to create a plan to change the behavior.

A FBA is a tool used to help us understand why a student acts a certain way(purpose) and decide what to do. A FBA can be used as a school evaluation for special education. Also can be used if a student is disciplined  or removed from school due to behavior..

An FBA is a tool used to assess a student's behavior and why it is getting in the way of academics. It is used to provide information to the adults working with the student in order to discover the function (what the child is getting) of that behavior. Once the function is determined, the information from the FBA is used to create a BIP. FBAs are typically used in situations where a child has a special education plan and it looks as though the behavior is getting in the way of that child learning. FBAs can also be used in similar situations even if a child does not have specialized education, but this is not typical as it is not mandated by law.

A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is a tool to identify the "function" (causality) of a student's problem behavior.  All behaviors serve a purpose, an FBA helps educators to identify the purpose behind a specific problem behavior.

Steps in an FBA:
1. Define the behavior
2. Gather and analyze information
3. Find our the reason for the behavior (function)
4.Make a plan, often an FBA leads to a BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan)

FBA's are used because whether they know it or not, kids act in certain ways for a reason. If schools and families can understand what’s causing a behavior, they can find ways to change/replace it.

An FBA is often part of a school evaluation for special education, or is a student who already has an IEP or 504 has new or continuing behavior concerns.  In addition, federal law requires an FBA in some cases when a student is disciplined or removed from school.