Behavior School
School BCBA Systems Letter
Research that leads to a practical next step
“Needs an FBA” is a conclusion, not a starting point
I think school teams often move too quickly from a behavior concern to a predetermined procedure. When a referral reaches the BCBA already labeled defiant, aggressive, or needs an FBA, the assessment decision is being made before the problem has been clearly defined.
That sequence is backward.
The concern may be urgent and an FBA may ultimately be appropriate. But first, the team needs to define the observable behavior, examine the classroom conditions surrounding it, and identify the decision the assessment must support. Only then should the BCBA select the assessment path.
This is not an argument against FBAs or functional analysis. It is an argument for using them deliberately instead of treating one assessment process as the automatic response to every referral.
An individual referral can still be a classroom systems problem
Kestner and colleagues reviewed research on classroom variables that affect learning and student behavior. They recommended that behavior analysts consider four conditions during baseline classroom assessment: opportunities for active student responding, curriculum fit, feedback and reinforcement, and effective instructions and transitions.
For school-based BCBAs, the important point is not that these four checks will resolve every referral. It is that an individual student's behavior can be affected by classroom-level conditions that should be observed before the team assumes the answer must begin with an individualized plan.
Kestner, K. M., Peterson, S. M., Eldridge, R. R., & Peterson, L. D. (2019). Considerations of baseline classroom conditions in conducting functional behavior assessments in school settings. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(2), 452-465.
Not every referral belongs on the same assessment track
Nesselrode and colleagues systematically reviewed functional analyses conducted in public schools. Analog functional analysis was the most common format in the reviewed literature, while adapted formats such as trial-based and brief functional analysis became more common over time.
The authors also identified limits in the school-specific evidence, including inconsistent terminology and a need for more research on social validity. For a school-based BCBA, the practical lesson is to avoid both extremes: not every referral automatically requires a functional analysis, and experimental analysis should not disappear from the available assessment options when descriptive evidence is unclear and a safe, competent, contextually appropriate test would improve the decision.
Nesselrode, R., Falcomata, T. S., Hills, L., & Erhard, P. (2022). Functional analysis in public school settings: A systematic review of the literature. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15(3), 958-970.
Define the decision before choosing the assessment
For one new or unresolved referral this week, write four lines:
Behavior: What did the student do that someone could observe and measure?
Context: What classroom conditions or routines need to be observed?
Decision: What question does the team need the assessment to answer?
Next step: What is the least intensive assessment step that can answer that question responsibly?
Using these four questions on one referral is useful. The harder part is making this kind of decision consistently when new referrals, meetings, staff questions, and urgent cases are all competing for attention.
That is where assessment skill becomes systems leadership: creating a process that helps you route concerns, choose the right level of assessment, and explain the next step to the team. The work is not simply making one good decision; it is building the system that makes good decisions repeatable.
Build the system behind the decision
That is why I built the School BCBA Transformation Program. School-based BCBAs apply the work directly to a student, staff member, or system they currently support, including referral routing, assessment decisions, functional assessment, and caseload systems.
See the School BCBA Transformation Program
Reply question: What part of your current referral process creates the most uncertainty?
Until next week,
Rob Spain, BCBA, IBA
Founder, Behavior School