Question:

Dear Mr. Saren:

I hope you are doing well. I am working on a story for The Special Educator and Special Ed Connection.com on writing effective behavior intervention plans under the final regs. Could you please assist me with this story by answering the following questions.

1. What steps should be taken before writing the plan?
2. What should the plan include?
3. What steps should be taken after the plan in written?
4. What should be done if the behavior continues?

Thank you for assisting me with this story. If you would like to answer these questions in a telephone interview, please email me with a date, time and phone number.

Jay Kravetz
Editor
The Special Educator
California Special Ed Alert
Special Education Report
LRP Publications
360 Hiatt Dr.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL. 33418
561-622-6520 ext. 8732

Answer:

Dear Jay,

The resources to answer questions 1 – 3 are available at the PENT website: http://www.pent.ca.gov/ Click on Behavior Planning

PENT stands for The Positive Environments, Network of Trainers and is a California Positive Behavior Initiative designed to provide information and resources throughout California for educators striving to achieve high educational outcomes through the use of proactive positive strategies. Through an email list-serve of California educators, evidence-based positive practices and helpful information is disseminated statewide to members.

Question 4 calls for a second go-round of steps 1 -3 to figure out what has not worked. Thus, the team needs reconsider each part of the behavior support plan:

• Was the behavior properly described?
• Was the function identified correct?
• Were the antecedents accurate?
• Did the team provide necessary environmental changes and supports?
• Was the student able to learn and use the replacement behavior?
• Did the replacement behavior match the function of the problem behavior?
• Did the team select reinforcement that was reinforcing to the student?
• Was the reinforcement delivered frequently and consistently?
• Were there adequate strategies developed to use if the problem behavior occurred again?
• Did the team provide for communication among all partied?

The solution to the problem should be found in the answers to these questions.

I hope this has helped!

Best,
Dru (I’m female) Saren