Behavior Intervention Plan in Washington State: What a BIP Must Include

Your child's school has completed a Functional Behavior Assessment and now they're proposing a Behavior Intervention Plan. Or maybe the school is saying your child needs one but hasn't conducted an FBA first. Either way, understanding what a legally sound BIP must contain in Washington — and what you can do when the district's version falls short — puts you in a much stronger position.

What a BIP Is and Why It Matters

A Behavior Intervention Plan is a document developed by the IEP team that outlines a proactive, function-based strategy for addressing a student's challenging behavior. It is not a punishment protocol. It is not a list of consequences for misbehavior. A legally and clinically sound BIP addresses the reason the behavior is occurring — the function — and teaches the student a more appropriate alternative.

The BIP sits alongside the IEP as part of the student's overall educational program. When services are not implemented — meaning the BIP's strategies are not being followed by staff — that is a violation of the IEP that you can address through an OSPI Community Complaint.

The FBA-BIP Connection

In Washington, a BIP without a Functional Behavior Assessment is built on guesswork. The FBA is the foundation. It identifies:

• What the challenging behavior looks like (operational definition)
• What consistently happens before the behavior (antecedents)
• What happens after the behavior (consequences that are maintaining it)
• The function — what the student is getting out of the behavior

The BIP then uses this information to structure an intervention. If the FBA finds that a student's aggressive behavior functions to escape a difficult academic task, the BIP should address that function — not merely add more consequences for aggression.

What Washington's BIP Must Contain

While WAC 392-172A does not prescribe a specific BIP template, IDEA requires that when a student's behavior impedes learning, the IEP team must consider positive behavioral interventions and supports. OSPI guidance and best practice within Washington districts establish what a functional BIP should include:

1. Operational definition of the target behavior The behavior must be described in terms specific enough that any staff member can identify it consistently. "Aggression" is not an operational definition. "Strikes a peer or adult with a closed fist, open hand, or object during transitions or when presented with non-preferred academic tasks" is.

2. Replacement behavior The BIP must identify a target replacement behavior — a functionally equivalent, socially appropriate alternative that meets the same need. If the student hits to escape work, the replacement might be requesting a break using a break card. If the student shouts to get attention, the replacement might be raising a hand or tapping the teacher's shoulder.

3. Antecedent strategies These are changes to the environment, instruction, or routine that make the problem behavior less likely to occur. For a student who escapes during writing tasks, antecedent strategies might include reducing the writing demand, previewing the task before class begins, or embedding high-preference activities alongside the non-preferred task.

4. Teaching plan How will the student be explicitly taught the replacement behavior? Who teaches it, in what setting, with what prompts? Without a teaching plan, the replacement behavior is assumed rather than developed.

5. Reinforcement strategies What will happen when the student uses the replacement behavior? Reinforcement should be immediate, meaningful to the student, and consistently applied across settings and staff.

6. Response strategies What staff will do when the problem behavior occurs — responses that do not inadvertently reinforce it. If the function is escape and staff respond to aggression by removing the student from the task, they've reinforced the behavior.

7. Data collection method How will the team know if the BIP is working? The plan must specify what data will be collected, how often, and who is responsible. This is essential for IEP progress monitoring and for knowing when the BIP needs to be revised.

8. Staff responsibilities Who is responsible for implementing each component? Vague language like "all staff will follow the BIP" without individual role clarity leads to inconsistent implementation.

When the District's BIP Falls Short

Common BIP quality problems in Washington schools:

• BIP developed without a proper FBA (function is guessed, not assessed)
• Replacement behavior is not functionally equivalent (the student has no reason to prefer it over the problem behavior)
• No teaching plan — the replacement behavior is listed but not explicitly taught
• Consequence-heavy, lacking proactive antecedent strategies
• No data collection method
• Staff roles are vague or unassigned

If the BIP the district is proposing lacks these components, you can request at the IEP meeting that the team revise it before you agree to implementation. You can also request a more comprehensive FBA if you believe the current functional hypothesis is wrong, and you can disagree with the behavioral evaluation and request an IEE at public expense under WAC 392-172A-05005.

Requesting a BIP Review or Revision

Any IEP team member, including you as the parent, can request an IEP team meeting to review the BIP if it isn't working. If the behavior is escalating rather than decreasing, that data should trigger a BIP review — either a modification of the strategies or a new FBA.

Submit the request in writing. State specifically what behavioral data concerns you (frequency, intensity, type of incidents) and request a team meeting within a reasonable timeframe. The district should treat this as an amendment to the IEP, which requires a meeting unless both parties agree to amend without one.

BIP Implementation Failures

When staff are not implementing the BIP as written — skipping antecedent strategies, failing to reinforce the replacement behavior, responding to problem behavior in ways that maintain it — that is a failure to implement the IEP. Document specific incidents: date, what occurred, what the BIP required, what staff did instead. This documentation supports an OSPI Community Complaint if the district does not correct the implementation.

The Washington IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a BIP review checklist, FBA request language, and how to document implementation failures for an OSPI complaint.

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