Introduction to the Mini-Series: Issues and Procedures for Implementing Functional Behavior Assessments in Schools

Abstract

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, P.L.105-17), the term behavior has become the latest buzzword for school psychologists. Although the law requires a functional assessment of behavior for certain students, it does not specify the procedures associated with one. The lack of guidelines in the law has resulted in states and local districts deciding for themselves what constitutes an appropriate and legally defensible functional behavior assessment. At this time, there are no data to verify that states or districts have designed and implemented functional assessments that are consistent with the law and that correspond to empirically derived procedures. In addition, a recent survey of graduate training programs indicates that many school psychologists do not receive adequate training in the operant principles upon which functional assessment is based (Shriver & Watson, in press). In response to the lack of clearly delineated legal guidelines and the lack of training in applied behavior analysis and functional assessment, several books and manuals have been published to assist school psychologists with implementing functional assessments (Nelson, Roberts, & Smith, 1998; O'Neill et al., 1997; Repp & Horner, 1999; Watson & Steege, in press; Witt & Beck, 1999). Some of these publications, however, are not intended for school psychologists and do not address the idiosyncratic features of conducting functional assessments in schools. Others are somewhat limited in scope and procedural detail. Thus, the focus of this mini-series is to provide school psychologists and other school personnel with a common knowledge base in functional assessment and examples of how functional assessments have been implemented in school settings. The first article in the miniseries by Gresham, Watson, and Skinner describes the basic terminology and conceptual background necessary for understanding function and t he general procedures associated with determining behavioral function. The article by Ervin, Ehrhardt, and Poling provides a historical perspective on the development and progression of functional assessment based on the literature that has accumulated over about the past 25 years. The third article by Shriver, Anderson, and Proctor is unique in the sense that functional assessment measures and procedures are evaluated using the traditional psychometric concept of construct validity. The questions and issues they raise should be valuable heuristics for anyone conducting research on functional assessment. The next article by Ervin, Radford, Bertsch, Piper, Ehrhardt, and Poling provides a review of the published studies on school-based functional assessment and offers a critical analysis of this literature. There are some noticeable gaps in the literature, especially when considering the application of functional assessment procedures within the general classroom setting, with academic behaviors, with low frequ ency behaviors, and with children without developmental delays. The fifth article, by Sterling-Turner, Robinson, and Wilczynski, provides the reader with a step-by-step example of how to conduct functional assessment of distracting and disruptive behaviors in the classroom. Both behaviors are common referrals in schools. The process these authors describe is almost universal in the sense that it can be applied to any number of problems and represents a thoughtful, scientific approach that is not unwieldy or unnecessarily time-consuming. Northup and Gulley, in the sixth article, address what is perhaps one of the most timely topics in this special issue--using functional assessment procedures to identify salient target behaviors and evaluate the effects of medication on children diagnosed with ADHD. …