Behavior Intervention Plan in Mississippi: What It Must Include and How to Enforce It

Your child's school has created a "behavior plan." It says: redirect the student when they become disruptive, remove them to the hallway if needed, contact parents if behavior escalates. You signed it because everyone seemed to expect you to.

That is not a Behavior Intervention Plan. That is a list of adult reactions to behavior after it occurs. A legally adequate Behavior Intervention Plan — the kind required under Mississippi's State Board Policy 74.19 — is built on data from a Functional Behavioral Assessment, addresses the function of the behavior, and teaches the student a replacement skill.

What Mississippi Law Requires

Mississippi requires a Behavior Intervention Plan to be developed after a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) when:

• A Manifestation Determination Review finds the behavior is related to the student's disability
• A student's behavior is impeding their learning or the learning of others
• A student is being disciplined in ways that constitute a pattern of removal

The BIP is part of the IEP — it is a legally binding component. Failing to implement the BIP is failing to implement the IEP, which is a FAPE violation.

The Four Parts of a Function-Based BIP

1. Precise Behavioral Definition The target behavior must be defined in specific, observable, measurable terms. "Is disruptive" is not a definition. "Leaves assigned seat without permission, shouts at peers or adults, or throws materials during independent work periods" is a definition that can be measured.

The BIP should also distinguish between the behavior being targeted for reduction (the challenging behavior) and the behavior being taught as a replacement.

2. The Identified Function This comes directly from the FBA. Every behavior serves a function:

• Escape/avoidance: The behavior gets the student out of something difficult, painful, or uncomfortable (a non-preferred task, a noisy environment, a social situation)
• Attention: The behavior produces adult or peer attention
• Access: The behavior produces a preferred item or activity
• Sensory/automatic: The behavior produces or reduces sensory input (self-stimulation, self-regulation)

Knowing the function determines what interventions will work. A student throwing materials to escape a difficult reading task needs a completely different plan than a student throwing materials to get peer laughs.

3. Replacement Behaviors and Teaching Plan This is the most important and most often missing component of weak BIPs. The BIP must identify the functionally equivalent replacement behavior — the behavior the student will be taught to use instead, which serves the same function as the challenging behavior.

If the function is escape, the replacement behavior might be: requesting a break using a card, asking for help when stuck, or signaling that a task is too hard. If the function is attention, the replacement might be: raising a hand, approaching the teacher during an appropriate time, or using peer interaction appropriately.

The BIP must then specify how the replacement behavior will be taught — direct instruction, modeling, role play, practice trials, reinforcement schedule. Teaching a replacement behavior is a specific instructional activity, not something that happens passively.

4. Consequence Strategies The BIP must specify what adults will do when the challenging behavior occurs AND when the replacement behavior occurs. Reinforcement of the replacement behavior is as important as managing the challenging behavior. A plan that only addresses what happens after the challenging behavior — without reinforcing the replacement — is incomplete.

Consequence strategies should include:

• Planned ignoring (for attention-maintained behavior, if safe)
• Specific reinforcers for replacement behavior use
• De-escalation procedures for crisis moments
• Criteria for when to involve crisis support

Common Problems with Mississippi BIPs

No connection to FBA data: The BIP doesn't reference the function identified by the FBA. This usually means the BIP was written without actually having conducted a real FBA.

No replacement behavior: The plan only describes what adults will do when the behavior occurs, not what the student will learn to do instead.

Punitive focus only: The plan emphasizes consequences (loss of recess, office referral, calls home) without any proactive teaching or reinforcement.

No data collection plan: There is no way to determine whether the BIP is working. Progress monitoring for behavior requires some form of data collection — frequency counts, interval recording, event recording.

Not shared with all teachers: A BIP embedded in an IEP must be implemented by every teacher and adult who works with the student. If a substitute teacher doesn't know the BIP exists, or a specials teacher thinks it doesn't apply to them, the BIP fails.

Monitoring the BIP

Ask the school how the BIP's effectiveness is being tracked. You should receive behavioral data as part of progress reporting — not just a narrative description, but actual data showing frequency, duration, or intensity of the target behavior and the replacement behavior over time.

If you're not receiving behavioral data, request it in writing. "Please provide the behavioral data collected on [child's name] for the past [period] regarding the target behaviors in the BIP."

If the data shows the BIP is not working — the challenging behavior is not decreasing or is increasing — the IEP team must reconvene to revise the FBA hypothesis and the BIP. Request that meeting in writing as soon as the pattern is clear.

When to Request an FBA and BIP

If your child's IEP does not include a BIP and your child is:

• Being disciplined repeatedly for the same or similar behaviors
• Receiving "Insufficient Progress" on behavioral goals
• Being informally removed from class or school regularly (see Mississippi Manifestation Determination on constructive suspensions)

...then submit a written request to the IEP team asking for a Functional Behavioral Assessment and, based on the results, development of a Behavior Intervention Plan.

The Mississippi IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a BIP audit checklist and the written request language for initiating an FBA when the school hasn't done one.

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