It is best practice to be proactive when your child begins to get into trouble at school. One important strategy is to document and track the issues. You can use PIC’s Behavior Tracking Sheet to create a record of every time your child receives a behavior warning, is sent home from school early, sent to the principal, administrator’s office, or other “time out” space, given a detention or suspended.

You may request an IEP team meeting to talk about the behaviors and share the information you have documented. You can request that a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) be done so that a behavior intervention plan (BIP) can be developed to address your child’s behavioral issues in a positive manner.

An FBA is an observation used to help analyze a child’s behavior. Observations should be made in both a structured setting (like math or reading class) and an unstructured setting (like lunch or gym).

The FBA should

• Answer key questions regarding when the behavior is most (and least) likely to occur

• Identify the antecedent – what is the situation that leads up to the behavior, who is present, what is going on at the time the behavior occurs, when, and where

• Define the behavior – in specific, concrete terms, labeled according to its seriousness (disruptive, disruptive, distracting) how long per episode, how often

• Identify the consequences – what happens because of the behavior, both in term of punishment and potential benefits for the child.

The FBA is then used to develop a hypothesis or a theory about the purpose or function that the behavior serves. For example, is the behavior an attempt to get out of something, like reading. Or is it to help them self-regulate or express emotion? This information is then used to develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). This documents the strategies, supports and methods that will be used to address the behaviors and used to teach more appropriate behaviors. It should include strategies that will prevent the behavior from reoccurring.