As a special education teacher, you might find yourself needing to complete a Functional Behavioral Assessment, or FBA. Although these documents are more commonly used with students who suffer from emotional disabilities, they may be used with students who are being serviced through other types of special needs programs as well. Therefore, regardless of the type of exceptionality you work with, it is important for you to understand the purpose of these documents as well as how to create them properly.

What is an FBA?

Put simply, the Functional Behavioral Assessment is designed to help you determine why a student is exhibiting certain behaviors. Since students with emotional disabilities are more likely to exhibit negative behaviors than students with other types of exceptionalities, you will likely have to complete an FBA on all or most of your students if you are a teacher of students with emotional disabilities. Even if you teach students with other types of disabilities, however, it is possible that you will find yourself creating an FBA.

Why Does an FBA Need to Be Created?

There are several reasons for needing to create an FBA. The primary purpose of creating this document is to make certain you are taking a critical look at the student’s behavior and trying to identify what is causing him or her to behave in such a negative way. By analyzing the student’s behavior and trying to determine why he or she is acting this way, you can more effectively develop a plan for changing the behavior and helping the student find success. Some of the most common reasons for being a behavioral problem include:

· Avoiding the situation
· Trying to obtain power over the situation
· Medical reasons
· Lack of understanding

In addition to helping you determine how to best assist the student, creating an FBA and a behavioral intervention plan, or BIP, is an important part of the process of changing the student’s placement. If a student is causing significant or reoccurring behavior problems that get in the way of the education of others or that student, you might want to consider placing the student on half days or having the student attend school at an alterative setting. By creating an FBA and BIP and implementing your strategies for a period of time, you are demonstrating that you have done everything you can to help the student be successful within the traditional school setting.

How Do I Create an FBA?

In order to create an FBA that is accurate and that is legally sound, it is important for you to gather a significant amount of data. While documentation of observations that have been made by staff personnel will be helpful in creating the FBA, you should gather additional data as well. If your school has done a good job of maintaining behavioral records, this information can help with creating the FBA. The same is true with progress reports and report cards. In order to create the most accurate FBA possible, however, you should observe the student for periods of 15 minutes or more within several different settings. This way, you can document everything that the student does and will have a clear description of the problem behaviors that are being seen.