When can I, or should I, ask for an FBA for my child?

Consider asking about an FBA if your child’s behavior appears to be interfering with your child’s own education, or with the education of others, and

• it is not clear why the behavior is occurring; and
• the teacher has tried different interventions to address the behavior but they haven’t been successful. 

Some specific examples of when you might ask about an FBA:    

• your child’s behavior is identified as a barrier to spending more time in a general education classroom.
• your child is sent out of the classroom frequently or for long periods of time for disruptive or inappropriate behavior;
• your child is not participating in class or engaging with instruction on a regular basis (maybe putting their head down, falling asleep, or refusing to do work).

If you don’t know yet how often the behavior is occurring, or how frequently a child is removed from the classroom, the first step may be to ask the teacher and/or principal to start keeping track, in other words to start taking some data, on how often it is happening.

This can give you all a “baseline” or starting point, for understanding the situation.