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On June 4, 1997, President William Jefferson Clinton signed into the law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997. Within this reauthorized law came amendments that specified new provisions for implementing behavior intervention strategies for students with disabilities. These amendments mandated that Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) takes place before the implementation of Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). Section 300.520(b) of the final rules states:
``suspension'' with ``removal,'' and to specify that when first removing a child for more than 10 school days in a school year, or commencing a removal that constitutes a change of placement, the LEA must within 10 business days, convene an IEP meeting. If the agency had not already conducted a functional behavioral assessment and implemented a behavioral intervention plan for the child the purpose of the IEP meeting is to develop an assessment plan.
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It is believed that these provisions provide students with disabilities with improved services and professionals with a better understanding of student behavior.
Though adding FBA and BIP to the law promotes better standards of practice, it also has the potential to cause more paperwork and logistical problems for school teams. Current practice seems to emphasize procedural compliance more than productive behavior planning and intervention ("Special Educators Share Their Thoughts", 1999).
The purpose of this project was to evaluate an initial design of an Online FBA and BIP. It was hoped that examining this resource would serve two functions. The first function of the Online FBA and BIP would facilitate the proper use of FBA by directly linking the assessment processes to the intervention process. The second function of the online FBA and BIP was to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes. A streamlined process would allow school personnel to spend more time in direct service and less time doing paperwork. This study is being designed to answer the following questions:
- What do practitioners see as important within a working Online FBA and BIP?
- In order the make the FBA and BIP more efficient and effective what should this resource be able to do?
- What should be key components to the visual interface of such a resource?
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