The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education have jointly offered guidance on the use of functional behavioral assessments for all students whose behavior interferes with learning.

Briefly, an FBA is a process for identifying the reasons behind, or factors contributing to, a student’s behavior.

This guidance is rooted in evidence-based practices to support students and allowable activities under both the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Student behaviors that interfere with learning and overreliance on exclusionary discipline continue to be among the top concerns of educators and families, the guidance states. It is critical that we better understand student behavior, including how peer pressure, poverty, social media, discrimination and trauma may impact behaviors that interfere with learning in the classroom.

A common response to student behavior that interferes with learning has been to remove the student from their learning environment through exclusionary discipline, such as through the use of suspensions, expulsions, or informal removals. When students are removed from their learning environments, students miss critical opportunities to receive the academic and behavior support they need. Exclusionary discipline can have long-lasting negative impacts for students and their parents – and can lead to decreased academic achievement, absenteeism, not finishing high school, increased involvement in the juvenile justice system and family stress.[

These negative impacts affect some groups of students more than others. During the 2020-21 school year, Black boys and girls, white boys, boys of two or more races, and students with disabilities attending public schools were overrepresented in receiving suspensions and expulsions. This trend starts as early as preschool. It is critically important to note that research demonstrates that one’s perceptions about student behavior can be the result of implicit bias rather than the student’s actual behavior. Therefore, addressing any implicit bias in how student behavior might be perceived and classified should be part of state and local efforts to create inclusive and supportive learning environments.

In developing the guidance, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education conducted listening sessions with various stakeholders, including parents, educators, administrators, advocates, and researchers, and reviewed relevant research.

The USDOE  believes that the additional guidance and clarification can be of assistance to the field. This guidance clarifies that FBAs should be utilized more frequently than currently used to understand behaviors that interfere with learning and inform appropriate instructional strategies or interventions. For a student with a disability, or suspected of having a disability, the guidance explains the following:

  • How an FBA may be used to inform appropriate instructional strategies or interventions.
  • That consent would be required, for a particular child, if the FBA is one of the assessment tools and strategies conducted as part of an initial evaluation or reevaluation that meets the IDEA requirements, or if the FBA is used, along with a review of additional data, as an initial evaluation or reevaluation that meets the IDEA requirements.

Read the full guidance.