November 20, 2024

The U.S. Department of Education’s Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments guidance is designed to help schools and early childhood programs better support students’ behavioral needs. This guidance focuses on evidence-based practices to support students, with or without disabilities, whose behavior interferes with learning, and is part of the Department’s effort to reduce exclusionary discipline.   

An FBA can help with understanding the function and purpose of a child’s specific, interfering behavior and factors that contribute to the behavior’s occurrence and non-occurrence for the purpose of developing effective positive behavioral interventions, supports, and other strategies to mitigate or eliminate the interfering behavior.  

The guidance, developed by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), provides educators and families with information, tools, and resources to support the broader use of FBAs and behavioral plans for students with and without disabilities.  The guidance describes an FBA, addresses common characteristics of an FBA and behavioral plans, explains how FBAs can inform instructional strategies, identifies guiding principles to support effective development and implementation, highlights federal funding sources for educator training related to FBAs, and provides technical assistance resources to support implementation.  

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  FBA Guidance