December 3, 2024, U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) held a webinar focused on using functional behavior assessments (FBA) to help shift from reactive exclusionary discipline to proactive support.

If you missed it, USDOE announced today it will be posting the recording of the webinar on its site with other resources and its new guidance document addressing FBA’s. It was an interesting session and won’t take but about an hour of your time to watch.

Glenna Wright-Gallo, Assistant Secretary Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) repeatedly emphasized that behavior is an ongoing form of communication and that it takes a team effort to figure out what students are communicating through behavior, why they are communicating it, and how to address it. What is the student trying to communicate? What behaviors preceded the unwanted behavior? Is this a trend or a one off? What have other teachers noticed? What have the parents experienced?

The underlying themes of the webinar were:

1. Fostering inclusive learning and utilizing FBAs and positive reinforcements are universal, not solely for students who have disabilities
2. Shifting from reactive blame and exclusionary discipline to proactive support makes a difference in learning environments.

The guidance includes examples of FBAs and who and how they might be administered and used to help support all students.