Wyoming Behavior Intervention Plans: What Schools Must Do When Behavior Is the Problem

When a child with a disability is having behavioral problems at school, the instinct of many Wyoming districts is to call the parent, threaten suspension, or move the child to a more restrictive setting. But IDEA and Wyoming's Chapter 7 Rules require something more specific: a Behavior Intervention Plan built on an actual assessment of why the behavior is happening.

Understanding what a legally adequate BIP looks like — and when your district is required to create one — is the difference between your child getting meaningful behavioral support and spending the school year cycling through suspensions.

What Triggers a Required Behavior Intervention Plan in Wyoming

Under Wyoming Chapter 7 and federal IDEA requirements, a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is formally triggered in two distinct circumstances:

Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) outcome: If the school seeks to remove a student with a disability for more than 10 cumulative school days in a school year — which constitutes a change of placement — the IEP team must hold a Manifestation Determination Review. If the team determines that the behavior was a manifestation of the disability (caused by or directly related to the disability, or a direct result of the district's failure to implement the IEP), the district must conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) if one doesn't already exist, and develop or review and modify an existing Behavior Intervention Plan.

Proactive IEP team decision: Beyond the disciplinary trigger, a BIP can and should be part of any student's IEP when behavioral issues are interfering with learning — for that student or for others. This is a team decision and does not require a specific disciplinary threshold. If your child's behavioral challenges are regularly disrupting their access to education, you can request that the IEP team conduct an FBA and develop a BIP as part of the regular IEP process.

The Relationship Between an FBA and a BIP

These two documents are connected but distinct. The Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) is the assessment process — an analysis that identifies the function of the behavior (what the child is getting or avoiding through the behavior) and the conditions under which it occurs. The BIP is the intervention plan that flows from the FBA findings.

A legally adequate FBA in Wyoming must:

• Identify the specific target behavior in observable, measurable terms
• Analyze the antecedents (what happens before the behavior) and consequences (what happens after)
• Identify the function of the behavior — avoidance, attention-seeking, sensory regulation, communication, etc.
• Be based on direct observation data, not just teacher reports or anecdotal descriptions

A BIP that is not grounded in an FBA is not a real BIP — it is a list of rules and punishments. Districts sometimes produce documents called "behavior plans" that simply outline consequences for misbehavior. That is not what Chapter 7 requires. The plan must address the function of the behavior with specific, proactive strategies.

What a Legally Adequate Wyoming BIP Must Include

The BIP developed from FBA findings should include:

Target behavior description: Written in specific, measurable terms. "Aggressive behavior" is not adequate. "Hitting peers with an open hand during transitions between activities" is specific enough to measure.

Hypothesis about behavioral function: A clear statement about why the behavior is occurring, based on the FBA data. This might be: the behavior functions to escape from non-preferred tasks, or to gain peer attention, or to communicate frustration when verbal language is unavailable.

Proactive strategies: Changes to the environment, schedule, or instruction that reduce the likelihood of the behavior occurring in the first place — before it starts.

Teaching replacement behaviors: The BIP should identify a specific replacement behavior that serves the same function as the problem behavior and teach it explicitly. If a child hits to get peer attention, the replacement behavior might be initiating a verbal greeting.

Reactive strategies: What staff will do when the behavior occurs — specific, de-escalation-focused responses that do not themselves reinforce the problem behavior.

Data collection plan: How and how often behavioral data will be collected to measure whether the plan is working.

Implementation responsibilities: Who is responsible for implementing each component of the plan. "The teacher" is not specific enough in a building where multiple adults interact with the student.

What Wyoming Schools Cannot Do: Chapter 42 Limits

Wyoming's Chapter 42 Rules govern seclusion and restraint in schools and set firm limits on how districts may respond to behavioral crises. These rules exist specifically because behavioral interventions can become abusive when oversight is absent.

Practices that are categorically prohibited in Wyoming schools:

• Aversive interventions (painful stimuli, humiliation, prolonged isolation as punishment)
• Locked seclusion rooms
• Mechanical restraints (tying, binding)
• Prone restraints (face-down physical restraint)

If a student is placed in a seclusion room (isolation), that room must be adequately ventilated, climate-controlled, lit with switches outside the room, and designed so that staff can see and hear the student at all times. Every incident of restraint or seclusion must be documented in an incident report that captures antecedents, duration, the student's response, and a post-incident debrief. These data must be reported to the WDE annually using the student's WISER ID.

If your child is being subjected to restraint or seclusion at school, you have the right to request all incident reports, review them, and demand that the district explain how these responses are consistent with the student's BIP.

When the District Isn't Following the BIP

A BIP written into an IEP is a legal document. If the district fails to implement it — if the proactive strategies aren't being used, if replacement behavior instruction isn't happening, if data isn't being collected — that is an IEP implementation failure that can be addressed through a WDE state complaint.

Before filing a complaint, build your paper trail:

• Request all service delivery logs and behavioral incident reports in writing
• Send a written follow-up after any IEP meeting where BIP concerns were discussed, summarizing what was said and what the district committed to
• Document specific dates when the BIP was not implemented as written

The state complaint process is particularly well-suited to BIP violations because the WDE can verify implementation through records review and, if necessary, on-site visits. If the WDE finds a violation, the district must implement a corrective action plan.

If you need help structuring a request for an FBA, drafting a complaint about BIP non-implementation, or formally documenting that the district's behavioral response is inadequate, the Wyoming IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes the letter templates and Chapter 7 citations that make these requests land with legal weight.

See more United States guides →