School Refusing to Do an FBA or Not Following Your Child's Behavior Plan

You've asked the school to do a Functional Behavioral Assessment. They said your child doesn't need one. Or they did one — and the resulting plan is a list of punishments: lose recess, call home, sit in the office. Your child is still melting down, still getting suspended, and the school's answer is "we're following the plan."

Both situations — a school refusing to conduct an FBA and a school not following (or offering an inadequate) behavior plan — are problems you can push back on. Here's how.

When Schools Are Required to Do an FBA

Under IDEA, schools are legally required to conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment in specific circumstances:

• When a student with an IEP is removed for more than 10 cumulative school days in a year (triggering a Manifestation Determination Review), and an FBA doesn't already exist
• When an MDR concludes the behavior is a manifestation of the disability — at which point an FBA must be conducted immediately if none exists, or the existing one must be updated
• When the IEP team determines that behavioral challenges are impeding the child's learning or the learning of others (under IDEA §300.324(a)(2))

Outside of these triggers, parents can also request an FBA as part of the evaluation process. If the school refuses, they must issue a Prior Written Notice (PWN) — a formal written statement explaining exactly what they're refusing to do, why, and what evidence supports their refusal. This is a legal requirement under IDEA §300.503.

A verbal "we don't think that's necessary" is not sufficient. Push for the written notice.

What to Do When the School Refuses an FBA

Send a written request. Email the school's special education coordinator or your child's case manager with a specific, documented request for an FBA. Be clear about why you're requesting it — your child's ongoing behavioral challenges, the frequency or severity of incidents, the lack of effective support currently in place.

Request Prior Written Notice if they refuse. If the school declines your request, email back: "Please provide Prior Written Notice of your refusal to conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment, as required under IDEA §300.503." This forces the school to document their refusal in writing — a much harder position to maintain than a verbal one.

Know you can request an Independent Educational Evaluation. If the school conducts an FBA and you believe it's inadequate, you have the right under IDEA §300.502 to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense. This means a private BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) or qualified evaluator conducts the assessment instead, and the school pays for it.

Common reasons schools offer for refusing FBAs — and why they don't hold up:

• "Your child doesn't have a behavior disorder." Behavior doesn't have to qualify under a specific diagnosis to impede learning.
• "The behavior is too mild." If it's generating suspensions, incident reports, or IEP team conversations, it's not mild.
• "We already have strategies in place." Strategies without an underlying functional analysis are guesswork.

What Makes a Behavior Plan "Inadequate"

If your child has a BIP but it's not working, the first question to ask is whether it matches the function of the behavior. This is where most school-designed plans fail.

A behavior plan that's actually a punishment list looks like this:

• Behavior occurs → student loses recess
• Behavior occurs again → parent called
• Behavior occurs again → sent to office

This is a consequence-only plan. It tells the child what will happen to them after they escalate, but it doesn't address why they escalated in the first place or teach them what to do instead. It also often makes things worse: a child whose behavior is driven by wanting to escape a difficult task gets exactly what they wanted (removal from the classroom) when they melt down.

A legally and clinically sound BIP must include:

1. An operational (observable, measurable) definition of the behavior
2. A hypothesis about the function — escape, attention, sensory, or access to tangibles
3. Antecedent modifications — changes to the environment or demands before the behavior occurs
4. Replacement behavior — a functional skill the child is explicitly taught to use instead
5. Consequence strategies tied to reinforcing the replacement behavior
6. A data collection schedule so the team can measure whether it's working

If your child's BIP has none of items 3, 4, or 5 — or if the BIP hasn't been revised despite obvious evidence it isn't working — that's an inadequate plan.

When the School Has a Plan But Isn't Following It

This is a different problem — and arguably more frustrating. The IEP team agreed on a protocol. Teachers aren't using it. Your child is still getting into crisis situations that the plan was supposed to prevent.

Your first move: document the gap. Keep notes or email the teacher asking specifically: "Can you confirm that the cool-down break protocol in [child's name]'s BIP was offered before today's incident?" You're not accusing anyone — you're creating a written record of whether the plan was implemented.

Failure to implement the IEP (including the embedded BIP) is not just an administrative inconvenience. Under IDEA, it can constitute a denial of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education). And at a Manifestation Determination Review, if the school failed to implement the BIP before a disciplinary incident, that's grounds to find the behavior a manifestation of the disability — regardless of whether the behavior itself was caused by the disability.

Put your request for corrective action in writing. "I'm writing to document that [child's name]'s BIP has not been consistently implemented, specifically [list what's not happening]. I'm requesting a meeting to address this and discuss accountability measures."

Advocating for Your Child with Behavior Issues

The most important reframe for any IEP meeting is this: behavior is communication. Your child is not being bad — they're communicating an unmet need. Your job at the table is to keep redirecting the conversation from "what consequences are we adding" to "what need are we failing to meet."

Practically, that means:

• Bring data — your own observations of what happens before and after behaviors at home
• Ask "what is the function of this behavior?" If the school can't answer clearly, the plan isn't based on an FBA
• Ask whether staff have been trained on the current BIP — untrained staff can't implement it
• Ask for the data being collected on behavior frequency and intervention outcomes

If the school is resistant, consider bringing a private BCBA to the IEP meeting. A BCBA can review the existing plan, identify why it's failing, and propose evidence-based modifications. They can also request their own observations of the child in the school environment.

The Behavior Support & FBA/BIP Toolkit includes an FBA adequacy checklist you can use to evaluate what the school has given you, along with email templates for formally requesting an FBA and Prior Written Notice.

The Paper Trail Matters

Every request you make verbally can be forgotten or denied. Every request you make in writing creates a record. Start now:

• Email rather than call
• Confirm verbal agreements in follow-up emails: "Per our conversation today, I understand the team has agreed to..."
• Keep copies of all IEP documents, incident reports, and behavior data the school shares with you

If you eventually need to escalate to a state complaint, due process, or an OCR complaint, this paper trail is your evidence. Schools take documented, written advocacy far more seriously than frustrated phone calls.