Behavior Intervention Plan in Indiana: What Your Child's BIP Must Include

The school says your child needs a behavior plan and is asking you to review and sign one. Or the behavior plan has been in place for months and nothing has changed. Understanding what a Behavior Intervention Plan must contain under Indiana's Article 7 — and what makes one actually work — is essential before you put your name on it.

What a BIP Is and Why It Matters

A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is a formal document, typically part of your child's IEP, that describes the strategies the school will use to address a specific behavior. It is developed following a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and is designed to be function-based — meaning it addresses the underlying reason for the behavior, not just the behavior itself.

A BIP without an FBA is guessing. If the school is offering you a behavior plan without having conducted a formal FBA, ask why and request that the FBA happen first.

Under Indiana's 511 IAC Article 7, when a student's behavior impedes their learning or the learning of others, the Case Conference Committee must consider positive behavioral interventions, supports, and strategies. A BIP is the formal implementation of that requirement.

What a Good BIP Must Include

Indiana's Article 7 does not provide a rigid template, but best practice (and IDEA guidance) requires these components:

1. Target Behavior Definition The behavior must be defined in observable, measurable terms — not "acts out" or "is disruptive," but "leaves assigned seat without permission more than five times per class period" or "makes verbal statements intended to threaten peers (defined as statements containing conditional harm language) more than twice per week."

If the behavior isn't operationally defined, you can't collect reliable data, and you can't know if the plan is working.

2. Baseline Data The BIP should document how often, how intensely, and for how long the behavior is occurring before intervention. Without a baseline, you have no way to measure whether the plan is producing improvement.

3. Hypothesized Function This comes from the FBA. The function describes why the behavior is occurring — to escape a task, to gain attention, to access something, or for sensory reasons. The entire BIP should be built around this function.

4. Antecedent Strategies (Prevention) These are environmental and instructional changes designed to reduce the likelihood the behavior occurs at all:

• Modifying the task (shorter chunks, clearer directions, different format)
• Adjusting the environment (seating, noise level, proximity to peers)
• Providing predictability through visual schedules or prior warning of transitions
• Pre-teaching coping strategies before difficult situations

If the plan has no antecedent strategies — if it only describes what to do after the behavior occurs — it is not a real BIP. It's a response protocol.

5. Replacement Behavior Teaching The most important component. The BIP should identify the skill the student will be taught to replace the problem behavior. This skill should serve the same function: if the student is escaping work via aggression, the replacement is requesting a break appropriately.

The replacement behavior must be:

• Easier than the problem behavior (if it's harder, the student won't use it)
• Taught explicitly — not just expected
• Reinforced consistently when it occurs

6. Response Strategies How staff will respond when the problem behavior occurs and when the replacement behavior occurs. Both matter. Many BIPs only describe the response to the problem behavior and ignore reinforcement of the replacement.

7. Data Collection Plan How often will data be collected? Who collects it? What form does it take? A BIP without data collection is unmonitorable and unenforceable.

8. Review Timeline When will the CCC review the BIP data and determine if the plan is working or needs revision?

The Indiana IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a BIP review checklist — every component to evaluate before you sign, and questions to bring to your CCC meeting if the plan is missing key elements. Get the complete toolkit

Red Flags in Indiana BIPs

Heavy on consequences, light on prevention: A plan that lists 5 levels of staff response to the behavior and one sentence about "pre-corrective reminders" is a discipline plan, not a behavior intervention plan. Real BIPs spend more space on antecedent strategies and replacement behavior teaching than on consequences.

No training requirement: If staff are implementing a BIP, there should be a training component — who will train the TOS and any paraprofessionals, on what procedures, by when. Inconsistent implementation is the most common BIP failure mode.

Generic language: "Staff will redirect student" is not a strategy. "When student begins to vocalize distress sounds, staff will provide a visual cue card showing break options and prompt student to select one within 30 seconds" is a strategy.

No parent component: For behaviors that occur at home and at school, the best BIPs include some coordination with parents — data sharing, consistent language, aligned reinforcement. If there's nothing about parent communication in the BIP and the behavior is happening at home too, the plan is missing an important piece.

How to Request Changes to an Existing BIP

You are a required member of the CCC. If you believe the BIP is inadequate, ineffective, or not being implemented consistently, you can request a CCC meeting at any time to review and revise it.

Submit your request in writing: "I am requesting a CCC meeting to review [child's name]'s Behavior Intervention Plan. I have concerns about [specific issue — implementation consistency, plan components, lack of progress]. I am requesting this meeting within the next [10–15] school days."

At the meeting:

• Ask for the behavioral data collected since the plan was implemented
• If there is no data, that is an implementation failure and a procedural issue you can raise
• If the data shows no progress or worsening, ask the team what changes they propose
• If the team has no proposals, consider requesting an IEE with a behavioral component from an outside BCBA

Indiana's one-party consent recording law (IC 35-33.5-5-5) applies to CCC meetings. If you're navigating a difficult behavioral situation with significant disagreement, recording the meeting ensures an accurate record of what was agreed.

When the BIP Isn't Being Followed

If the BIP specifies that staff will use a specific prompt hierarchy, that the student gets a visual schedule, that certain antecedent modifications are in place — and you discover those things aren't happening — the school is failing to implement the IEP.

Failure to implement IEP components (including a BIP) is a procedural violation under Article 7. You can:

• Document the failure in writing and send a letter to the special education director
• File a state complaint with IDOE's Office of Special Education
• Raise it as an IEP implementation failure at the next CCC (and in any subsequent Manifestation Determination Review, where IEP implementation failures are directly relevant)

A behavior plan on paper is not the same as one being consistently implemented with fidelity. The Indiana IEP & 504 Blueprint gives you the framework to evaluate every component of your child's BIP and the tools to push for a plan that actually produces results.

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