← All tools

Tool 56: The FBA Request Letter - and How to Tell an FBA From a Checklist with a Fancy Name

THE RULE

When a child’s behavior gets in the way of learning - the child’s own learning, or another child’s - the IEP team must consider the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports, and other strategies, to address that behavior (34 C.F.R. § 300.324(a)(2)(i)). That is a duty of the team under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It is not something the team gets to skip.

That sentence is the whole federal foundation for behavior support outside of discipline. Learn it. Say it out loud at meetings.

A functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is how a team finds out what to support. It asks one question: what is this behavior accomplishing for this child?

An FBA does not automatically count as an IDEA evaluation. Consent depends on how the district will use it. The district must obtain parental consent when the FBA is part of an initial evaluation or reevaluation, when the FBA together with other data is used as that evaluation or reevaluation, or when the district conducts a new FBA under IDEA’s discipline provisions. IDEA does not require consent when the FBA is used only as instructional screening or as a review of existing data, including classroom observations. Ask the district to state in writing which category applies and to send any required consent form. State law or another federal law may add protections (U.S. Department of Education, Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments, 11-14 (Nov. 2024)).

Three things follow from it, and they are the whole reason this tool exists.

First, identify the purpose. If the FBA is part of an initial evaluation or reevaluation, the consent rules in 34 C.F.R. § 300.300(a) or (c) apply. Reviewing existing data does not require consent (34 C.F.R. § 300.300(d)(1)(i)), and instructional screening alone does not trigger IDEA evaluation consent. If the district must conduct a new FBA under the discipline provisions, it must obtain consent before conducting it. Ask the district to identify the category in writing.

Second, when the FBA is part of an initial evaluation or reevaluation, it must follow the IDEA evaluation rules at 34 C.F.R. §§ 300.304-300.311. Read these slowly. They are the argument you will make when the district is using the FBA as an evaluation or as one component of an evaluation. When an FBA is used outside an IDEA evaluation, these provisions do not automatically govern it. The Department instead describes common characteristics of a sound FBA, including an observable description of behavior, individualized data collection, a function-based review, and identification of skills to develop (U.S. Department of Education, Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments, 5-7, 13-14 (Nov. 2024)).

• Use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional information about the child, including information from the parent (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(b)(1)).

• Do not use any single measure or assessment as the sole criterion for deciding on an appropriate educational program (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(b)(2)).

• Use technically sound instruments that may assess behavioral factors (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(b)(3)).

• Use tools that are valid and reliable for the purpose, administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(c)(1)(iii)-(iv)).

• Be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child’s special education and related services needs (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(c)(6)).

• Provide tools and strategies that directly help the team determine the child’s educational needs (34 C.F.R. § 300.304(c)(7)).

• Review existing data, including classroom-based observations and observations by teachers and related services providers (34 C.F.R. § 300.305(a)(1)(ii)-(iii)).

• Draw on information from a variety of sources, and document and carefully consider all of it (34 C.F.R. § 300.306(c)(1)).

Third, you can ask for one. A parent may request a reevaluation, and the district must ensure a reevaluation is conducted (34 C.F.R. § 300.303(a)(2)). It may happen not more than once a year unless you and the district agree otherwise (34 C.F.R. § 300.303(b)(1)). If the team decides no additional data are needed, it must tell you that, tell you the reasons, and tell you that you may ask for an assessment anyway (34 C.F.R. § 300.305(d)(1)). The district is not required to conduct that assessment unless you ask for it (34 C.F.R. § 300.305(d)(2)). So ask, and ask in writing. Your written request is what converts a “we don’t need more data” into a duty.

If your child has not yet been found eligible, this same request is a request for an initial evaluation (34 C.F.R. § 300.301(b)). Then the federal clock gives the district 60 days from its receipt of your signed consent to complete the evaluation - unless your state sets its own timeline, and many do (34 C.F.R. § 300.301(c); Tools 7 and 8; the 50-State Companion).

Now the sentence that this tool is built on. The federal regulations never supply a universal content checklist for every FBA. When the FBA is part of an initial evaluation or reevaluation, the evaluation standards above apply. When it is used outside an IDEA evaluation, the Department’s common characteristics and the quality screen below are persuasive guidance and best practice, not a freestanding Part 300 checklist. Either way, a rating scale by itself rarely explains the function of behavior or supplies enough information to design a function-based plan.

WHY IT MATTERS

Behavior is communication. Every behavior is doing a job for the child. Usually the job is one of 4 things: getting away from something (escape), getting a person’s attention, getting access to a thing or an activity, or meeting a sensory need. A plan built without knowing the job is a guess.

A guess can make things worse. If a child screams to get out of reading, and the school’s answer is to send him out of the reading room, the plan pays him for screaming. Nobody meant it that way. Nobody checked the function, so nobody saw it. The behavior grows, and the file starts to say the child is defiant.

There is a second stake, and it is the reason to get this right the first time. A one-page checklist takes 10 minutes to fill out and produces a document titled “Functional Behavioral Assessment.” Once that document exists, the district can say the FBA was done. Getting a real one after a hollow one is in the file is harder than getting a real one now.

And the file follows the child. An FBA that concludes “attention-seeking” with no data behind it will be quoted at every meeting for years - including at the manifestation determination review, if your child is ever suspended (Tools 61 and 64).