Brief report: Effects of an administrative supervisory protocol on preparation of behavior support plans at a child service setting.

Abstract

Abstract We evaluated a supervisory protocol that targeted preparation of behavior support plans by administrative staff at a school for children with developmental disabilities. Using a multiple baseline design, the protocol was applied sequentially to three components of behavior support plan preparation. Intervention procedures included goal specification, action directives, and performance feedback. The administrative supervisory protocol increased and maintained proper completion of the behavior support plan components. Aspects of systems-focused change are discussed. Keywords: behavior support plans, special education administration, developmental disabilities. ********** Many children with developmental disabilities receive educational services in specialized school programs. Intensive intervention may be required when a child has seriously challenging behaviors such as aggression, property destruction, and self-injury. In such cases it is advisable to have a written behavior support plan (BSP) (Codding, Feinberg, Dunn, & Pace, 2005). The advantages of a BSP are that intervention procedures are described operationally, the conditions for implementation are specified, and responsible staff are provided a reference document. These features make it likely that care providers will apply intervention procedures accurately. A BSP should have proper clinical justification, with procedures derived from functional behavioral assessment (Drasgow & Yell, 2001). In addition, there are other elements integral to BSP preparation. For example, plans should consolidate all relevant information into a single-source document. There should be evidence that staff responsible for intervention read the BSP, and that parent consent was acquired. Monitoring these and similar components of BSP preparation is critical to ensure compliance with practice standards. Accordingly, our purpose in the present study was to evaluate the effects of a supervisory protocol on completion of BSP components by administrative staff at a school for children with developmental disabilities. The protocol included several performance enhancement strategies (Reid & Parsons, 1995) and was evaluated empirically in a multiple baseline design. Method Participants and Setting The participants were 7 administrators at a private school for children with developmental disabilities (N = 51). The administrators included the director of the school, the director of family services, and 5 program managers. These individuals were responsible for operation of the school including supervision of classroom teachers and teacher-assistants. In total, there were 8 classrooms, each comprised of a primary teacher, 2-3 teacher-assistants, and 5-7 students. Students (ages 3-14 years) attended school for 6 hours on weekdays. Measurement Twenty (20) students at the school had written behavior support plans that were being implemented at the start of the study. The dependent measures were the following three components of BSP preparation: Parent Consent. Parents were required to give informed consent for the implementation of a BSP with their child. Once a BSP was written, it was reviewed with parents and they were requested to grant verbal approval. The BSP also had an accompanying one-page informed consent form for parents' signature. Staff Sign-Off. Before implementing procedures, classroom teachers and teacher-assistants were required to read each student's BSP. The plans were contained in casebooks for each student. Each classroom staff member was expected to acknowledge reading the BSP by signing her/his name on a one-page form. Comprehensive BSP. A comprehensive BSP was considered a single written document that described all intervention procedures implemented with a student. Thus, it was expected that if a student was receiving intervention for three challenging behaviors, all respective procedures would be reflected in one document instead of three separate behavior support plans. …