Functional Behavior Assessment in Maine: What It Is and How to Request One

Your child is getting sent to the office. Or refusing to enter the classroom. Or hitting, running, screaming — and the school's response is suspensions, reduced school days, or a call for a more restrictive placement. What is often missing from that conversation is the most important question: why is this behavior happening?

A Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) is the process for answering that question. Under Maine's MUSER Chapter 101, an FBA is both a right and a requirement in specific circumstances — and understanding when and how to use it can be the difference between your child getting appropriate support and getting pushed into a more restrictive setting to make the school's day easier.

What a Functional Behavioral Assessment Does

An FBA is a systematic process for identifying the function — the underlying reason — driving a specific behavior. Rather than treating the symptom (the hitting, the refusal, the screaming), a well-conducted FBA identifies what the behavior is communicating or achieving for the child.

Behavior analysts work from the understanding that all behavior serves a function. Common functions include:

• Escape or avoidance — the behavior allows the child to get away from something aversive (a difficult task, sensory overwhelm, a stressful social situation)
• Attention seeking — the behavior reliably produces adult or peer attention
• Access to a preferred item or activity — the behavior results in getting something the child wants
• Automatic or sensory reinforcement — the behavior itself provides sensory input or relief

A well-conducted FBA involves structured observations across multiple settings, interviews with parents and teachers, review of behavioral data, and ABC (Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence) analysis. It is not a brief check-in or a teacher's verbal description of what happens. In Maine, where rural areas have shortages of Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), the quality of FBAs can vary considerably.

What Maine Law Requires

Under MUSER IX.3.D, when a child exhibits behavior that impedes their learning or the learning of others, the IEP Team is required to consider positive behavioral interventions and supports. When behavior is chronic or severe, best practice — and increasingly legal requirement — dictates conducting an FBA before drafting a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP).

Beyond the general MUSER requirement, IDEA creates specific FBA obligations in the context of discipline:

Manifestation Determination Meetings: When a child with a disability is suspended for 10 or more school days (cumulatively or consecutively), the district must convene a Manifestation Determination Review (MDR). If the team finds the behavior was a manifestation of the disability or resulted from a failure to implement the IEP, the district must conduct an FBA (if one has not been done) and develop or revise the BIP.

Change of Placement for Disciplinary Reasons: If a district moves a child to a more restrictive setting as a response to behavior, the requirement for an FBA and BIP is triggered.

Parents do not have to wait for a disciplinary crisis to request an FBA. A written request citing MUSER IX.3.D is sufficient to initiate the process. If a child's behavior is already disrupting their learning and the school has not conducted a proper FBA, that gap in the IEP is a legitimate advocacy point.

Abbreviated School Days: Maine's Warning Sign

Maine has a specific problem with abbreviated school days being used as a de facto discipline tool. MUSER VI.2.L establishes that children with disabilities are entitled to the same school day as their peers. An abbreviated day can only be initiated by the IEP Team for individual educational or medical needs — not as a behavioral management strategy.

Any abbreviated day lasting more than 10 days is legally considered a change in placement. The U.S. Department of Justice has reached civil rights settlements with Maine SAUs over exactly this practice — using shortened schedules to exclude behaviorally challenging students rather than providing appropriate support.

If your child is being sent home early repeatedly without a formal FBA-backed BIP in place, you have grounds to challenge this as both a MUSER violation and potentially a civil rights issue. The Maine DOE's OSSIE (Office of Special Services and Inclusive Education) handles state complaints on FAPE denial, and Disability Rights Maine (DRM) handles systemic civil rights violations.

What a Good FBA Looks Like

An adequate FBA should include:

1. Clear behavioral definition — the target behavior is described in objective, observable, measurable terms (not "is disruptive" but "leaves assigned seat without permission an average of 8 times per 30-minute class period")

2. Data collection across settings — observations in multiple environments (classroom, specials, lunch, transitions) over multiple days, conducted by trained observers

3. Hypothesis statement — a clear, data-supported explanation of the function driving the behavior

4. Identification of setting events and antecedents — what conditions make the behavior more likely (hunger, fatigue, sensory input, specific academic demands, social situations)

5. Review of existing records — health history, prior evaluations, current IEP goal data, disciplinary records

If the school offers a FBA that consists primarily of teacher interviews and anecdotal observations, that is insufficient. If you disagree with the school's FBA findings, you have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation that includes a behavioral component, and under MUSER V.6, the district must either fund it or file for due process within 30 calendar days.

The FBA-to-BIP Connection

An FBA is only useful if it drives a Behavior Intervention Plan. A BIP must:

• Name specific target behaviors (and replacement behaviors the child will learn instead)
• Specify proactive strategies to prevent the triggering antecedents
• Include de-escalation techniques matched to the behavioral function
• Define reinforcement strategies to build the replacement skill
• Assign specific implementation responsibilities to named team members

A BIP that says "teacher will redirect student" without addressing the function is not a plan — it is a placeholder. If the BIP is not working, parents can request a reconvening of the IEP Team to revise it. Stagnation in behavioral data is a signal that either the function was misidentified or the plan is not being implemented with fidelity.

What to Do if Maine Schools Are Short on BCBAs

Aroostook, Penobscot, Oxford, and Washington counties face acute shortages of Board Certified Behavior Analysts. If a school cites workforce scarcity as a reason it cannot conduct a quality FBA, parents can:

• Request that the district contract with a BCBA from another district or a private provider
• Request telehealth-based behavioral consultation as an accommodation under the individual's IEP
• Seek an independent FBA through the IEE process

Maine law does not permit a district to deny a required service because staff are unavailable. Scarcity may explain a delay — it does not eliminate the obligation.

The Maine IEP & 504 Blueprint includes guidance on requesting FBAs under MUSER, evaluating whether an existing BIP is legally sufficient, and documenting behavior data to support your advocacy position. Behavior-related IEP disputes are among the most complicated in Maine special education — having a clear framework for the process matters.

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