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

A behavior intervention plan in your child's IEP is supposed to be a practical document — one that tells every adult who works with your child exactly what to do when a behavior occurs and what to teach instead. In Montana, where cooperative psychologists often develop BIPs for districts they visit infrequently, a BIP that looks thorough on paper may be unknown to the substitute teacher covering the classroom on any given day. Understanding what a well-written BIP requires, and what your enforcement options are, is what turns the plan from a compliance document into something that actually works.

What a Behavior Intervention Plan Is — and What It Isn't

A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is a required component of an IEP when a student's behavior impedes their learning or the learning of others and behavioral interventions are needed. It is not a list of consequences. It is not a disciplinary policy for your child. A BIP is a teaching document that identifies why a behavior is occurring and what the student will be taught to do instead.

Every BIP must be grounded in a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA). The FBA determines the function of the problem behavior — what the behavior is communicating or achieving for the student. Without a function, a BIP is guesswork. If the school proposes a BIP without first conducting an FBA, ask in writing why an FBA was not done and request one before the BIP is written.

Under ARM 10.16.3322 and IDEA, a BIP is required following a manifestation determination where the behavior is found to be a manifestation of the disability. The IEP team must either conduct a new FBA and develop a new BIP or review and revise an existing one.

Required Components of a Compliant BIP

Operational definition of the target behavior. The behavior must be described in specific, observable, measurable terms — not "aggression" but "strikes adults with open hand when told to stop a preferred activity." Not "noncompliance" but "falls to the floor and refuses to move when asked to transition between classrooms." Vague definitions make consistent staff response impossible.

Baseline data. How often does the behavior occur? How long does it last? How severe is it? Baseline data is what tells you, three months later, whether anything has changed. A BIP with no baseline data cannot be evaluated.

FBA-identified function. Is the behavior serving to escape a demand? Access attention or a preferred item? Communicate a need? Provide sensory input? The function determines everything else — an incorrect function analysis leads to an intervention that won't work and may make the behavior worse.

Antecedent strategies. What changes to the environment, routine, or instructional demands will reduce the triggers for the behavior? If a student bolts during transitions, antecedent strategies might include a five-minute advance warning, a visual schedule of the transition steps, and a sensory regulation activity before the transition occurs.

Replacement behavior. This is the skill being taught. The replacement behavior must be functionally equivalent to the problem behavior — it serves the same purpose, but through an acceptable means. If the function of throwing materials is escape from a difficult writing task, the replacement behavior is a "break" card the student can hand to the teacher. The replacement behavior must be taught explicitly through direct instruction, not simply listed in the document and expected to appear.

Consequence strategies. How will adults respond to the problem behavior, and how will they respond to the replacement behavior? These must be asymmetric — the replacement behavior should receive immediate, reliable reinforcement, while the problem behavior should not produce the same outcome it was functioning to achieve. This section must be specific enough that any adult in the building can implement it consistently.

Implementation responsibilities. Who is responsible for each piece of the plan? If a paraprofessional is the primary implementer, that person needs explicit training on the plan, not just a copy of it. Training must happen before implementation, not after the first incident.

Progress monitoring. How will the team collect data to determine whether the BIP is working? The data collection method, frequency, and decision rules for when to reconvene and revise should all be specified.

Montana-Specific Reality: Cooperative Psychologists and BIP Development

In Montana, 21 Special Education Cooperatives serve rural districts, and most BIPs in smaller schools are developed by cooperative psychologists or behavioral specialists who travel to those schools rather than being based there. A cooperative psychologist may visit a school one or two days per month. That psychologist writes a BIP based on classroom observation and staff input, then leaves.

The implementation quality of that BIP depends entirely on local staff. The classroom teacher, the paraprofessional, the principal — they are the people who will carry out the plan every day. If they weren't trained on it, or if the psychologist's visit was too brief for meaningful training, or if staff turn over (a common problem in rural Montana), the plan sits in the IEP binder unimplemented.

This creates a specific problem you should prepare for: ask at the IEP meeting who will train the school staff on the BIP, when that training will happen, and how it will be documented. If the cooperative psychologist is the only person who understands the plan, what happens during the six weeks between visits if the behavior escalates?

The Substitute Teacher Problem

Montana IEPs are legal documents. The BIP within them is legally required to be followed. "The substitute didn't know" is not an excuse, but it is an extremely common failure mode in rural Montana schools where staffing turnover is high and substitute pools are thin.

A well-written BIP should be simple enough that any adult implementing it can do so after a brief review. Ask the IEP team to prepare a one-page summary of the BIP's key response strategies — what to do when the behavior occurs, what to reinforce, what to avoid — that can be left on the teacher's desk for any staff covering the classroom.

If you observe that the BIP is not being followed because substitute or temporary staff aren't being briefed on it, document the incidents in writing and request an IEP team meeting to address it. A BIP that is not being implemented is a FAPE failure.

Connection to Manifestation Determination

Every time a school proposes a disciplinary removal of more than 10 cumulative school days in a year for a student with an IEP, a manifestation determination review (MDR) is required. If the team finds the behavior IS a manifestation of the disability, the district must conduct or review an FBA and implement or revise a BIP.

This is both a protection and a lever. If your child is being repeatedly suspended for behavior that is related to their disability, and there is no BIP in place (or the existing BIP was never implemented), the MDR process forces the district back to the drawing board. A finding of manifestation does not mean nothing happens — it means the response must be behavioral support, not exclusionary discipline.

Conversely, a BIP that is actually working reduces the likelihood of disciplinary situations that trigger an MDR. Investment in a functional BIP is always preferable to getting to that point.

What to Do When the BIP Isn't Working

Signs the BIP is failing:

• No data is being collected
• Staff describe implementing the plan differently from how it is written
• The replacement behavior was never actually taught
• The problem behavior is unchanged or increasing
• The student has been suspended repeatedly despite having a BIP in place

Request a BIP review meeting in writing. Come with specific documentation: incident dates, any data you have, written observations of what staff actually did versus what the plan specifies. Ask the team to bring their own data. If data doesn't exist, that's evidence the plan is not being implemented — not evidence the plan is working.

Montana's dispute resolution options include IEP Facilitation (a neutral facilitator for difficult IEP meetings), mediation, state complaint with the OPI Division of Special Education (resolved within 60 calendar days), and due process.

The Montana IEP & 504 Guide includes a BIP review checklist, an FBA explanation guide for parents, and templates for requesting behavioral services from a cooperative.

For a broader overview of behavior intervention plans, see our behavior intervention plan guide.

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