The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requires that functional behavior assessments be conducted under certain circumstances for students with disabilities. Functional assessments may include indirect assessments (e.g., rating scales, interviews), direct-descriptive assessments (e.g., direct observations with conditional…

Leading research argues the distinct importance of earliest detection of childhood behavior problems and the value of discovering subsequent change patterns as children transition through the early education years. This study examined the relative contributions of earliest assessments of children's problem behaviors as compared to the changes in…

In this study, 188 master-level students received training through a distance education course to conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavior support plans with 68 boys and six girls (aged 3-20 years) displaying persistent behavior problems in inclusive preschools, elementary, and secondary schools. In the course, master-level…

Many schools are faced with the prospect of soaring absenteeism rates, despite the use of traditional truancy courts and other legal interventions. A recent trend in the literature has been to explore alternative, hybrid, and multidisciplinary approaches to address the underlying obstacles to school attendance. These programs are often integrated…

A comprehensive self-management intervention was utilized to increase the on-task behavior of three African American students within an urban middle-school setting. The intervention was designed to necessitate minimal management on the part of the general education classroom teacher by utilizing an electronic prompting device, as well as a…

Notwithstanding the wealth of research that documents the effectiveness of self-management programs in the classroom, few investigations have explored classwide use of self-management procedures as a universal intervention. To extend existing research in this area, we examined the effectiveness of a classwide self-management intervention for…

The purpose of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis of teachers' use of functional assessment (FA) and positive behavior support (PBS) for addressing challenging behaviors in young children. A group of 35 experimental teachers participated in professional development designed to provide step-by-step training and guided implementation…

Transitioning between activities can pose difficulties when working with students with autism. Individuals with autism may resist transitions by exhibiting a host of problem behaviors such as aggression and tantrums. Although scant, there is available research that provides sound recommendations for assessing and intervening for problem behaviors…

The purpose of this review is to present factors that impede and promote successful transition to kindergarten, with a focus on the specific needs of students with problem behavior. The review addresses competencies that teachers report are critical for success in kindergarten, traditional transition practices, and challenges in implementing…

Although it has been argued that students with behavioral disorders benefit most from placement in general education classrooms, careful and systematic support is required to insure that their placement is successful. In this article, we review supports and interventions provided at multiple levels that together are known as "positive behavior…

The current study examined the assessment strategies school psychologists used in their everyday assessment routine in the evaluation of students referred for social/behavioral/emotional problems. A stratified, random, national sample of 1,000 members of the National Association of School Psychologists were sent surveys; 667 completed surveys were…