No. Functional Behavior Assessments are a tool that schools and families can use to help understand and address challenging behaviors for any student.
The use of FBAs might be most familiar for students with IEPs because in some cases they are required (see the section on discipline). Also, special education rules require that IEP teams consider the use of “positive behavioral interventions and supports and other strategies” for any child with an IEP whose behavior is getting in the way of that own child’s learning, or of other students’ learning. Developing an effective behavior intervention plan depends on first developing a good understanding of why the behavior is occurring, and that is what an FBA can do.