When a behavior keeps happening despite everyone’s best efforts, there’s usually a reason nobody has found yet.
That’s not a knock on parents, teachers, or support staff. Behavior is genuinely hard to read from the outside. Something that looks like defiance might actually be anxiety. Something that looks like attention-seeking might be a person communicating that they’re in pain or overwhelmed. When you’re in the middle of it, the “why” gets lost in the “what.”
A functional behavior assessment (FBA) is specifically designed to answer that question. Not to label the person, and not to assign blame. Just to figure out what’s actually going on so that the support you put in place has a real shot at working.
What an FBA Actually Is
A functional behavior assessment is a structured process for figuring out why a behavior is happening. Not just what the behavior looks like on the surface, but what’s driving it underneath.
Every behavior has a function. That’s not a theory or a philosophy, it’s just how behavior works. People do things for reasons, even when those reasons aren’t obvious, even when the person doing them can’t explain it, and even when the behavior is causing real problems. An FBA is the process of identifying what those reasons are.
The “function” of a behavior usually falls into a few categories. Sometimes a behavior is about getting something, like attention, access to a preferred activity, or a sensory experience that feels good. Sometimes it’s about escaping or avoiding something, like a difficult task, a noisy environment, or an uncomfortable social situation. Understanding which one is driving a behavior completely changes how you respond to it and what support actually helps.
Why Does My Kid Keep Having Meldowns?
Here’s the thing about trying to address a behavior without knowing its function: you might accidentally make it worse.
Say someone is having regular meltdowns before school. If you respond by letting them stay home, and staying home is actually what they were trying to get out of, you’ve just taught them that the meltdown works. The behavior gets stronger because it’s working.
On the flip side, if you respond with consequences that feel punishing, and the behavior is actually happening because the person is overwhelmed and doesn’t have another way to communicate that, you’ve added stress to an already hard situation without solving anything.
This is why the function matters so much before you decide on any kind of intervention. Behavior support that’s built around the actual reason a behavior is happening is dramatically more effective than support that’s based on guessing.
What the FBA Procurement Process Looks Like
An FBA isn’t a single test or a one-time appointment. It’s a process, and it usually involves a few different pieces.
Interviews and conversations. A behavior analyst will talk with the people who know the person best: parents, caregivers, teachers, support staff, and sometimes the individual themselves. These conversations cover what the behavior looks like, when it happens, how often, what usually comes before it, and what happens after. This is called gathering indirect data, and it gives the analyst important context before they ever observe anything directly.
Direct observation. At some point, the analyst will watch the person in the environments where the behavior occurs. This might be at home, at school, in a clinic, or in a community setting. They’re looking for patterns: what tends to set the behavior off (called antecedents), what the behavior itself looks like, and what the consequences are. This is often called ABC data, short for antecedent, behavior, consequence.
Data review. If there are records from school, previous assessments, medical history, or other relevant documentation, those get factored in too.
Analysis. Once the data is collected, the analyst looks for patterns and forms what’s called a hypothesis about the function of the behavior. This hypothesis becomes the foundation for everything that comes next.
A written report. At the end of the process, you’ll receive a document that explains what was found, what the likely function of the behavior is, and recommendations for how to move forward. Often this includes the development of a behavior intervention plan, which is the actual roadmap for support.
The whole process can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a little longer, depending on how complex the situation is and how much observation is needed.
Who Conducts an FBA
A functional behavior assessment should be conducted by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, a BCBA. BCBAs are trained specifically in behavior analysis and assessment, and they’re the qualified professional for this kind of work.
In a school context, you might hear about FBAs being conducted by school psychologists or other staff members. The quality and depth of those assessments can vary widely. A BCBA-led FBA tends to be more thorough and more directly tied to evidence-based intervention planning.
At OGBC, our BCBAs conduct comprehensive FBAs for children, adolescents, and adults. We serve families in Louisville, Florence, and surrounding areas across Colorado.
Can Kids Without Autism Still Get an FBA?
FBAs aren’t only for children with autism, though that’s often where people first hear about them. A functional behavior assessment can be helpful for anyone whose behavior is causing significant disruption to their daily life or the lives of the people around them, and where the reasons behind that behavior aren’t clear.
That might look like:
A child who has frequent aggressive outbursts at home or school that haven’t responded to typical parenting strategies or school interventions.
A teenager who is self-harming or shutting down in ways that feel hard to understand.
An adult with an intellectual disability or developmental delay who lives in a group home or supported living situation and is struggling behaviorally in ways that affect their safety or their relationships with others.
A student whose behavior keeps getting them removed from class, but nothing the school has tried is making a lasting difference.
Someone who has received behavior support before but the strategies don’t seem to be working, and it’s not clear why.
If any of those sound familiar, an FBA is probably worth looking into.
What Happens After the FBA
The assessment itself is just the starting point. What makes an FBA valuable is what you do with the information.
Most of the time, the recommendations from an FBA lead to the development of a behavior intervention plan. A BIP is a personalized, written strategy for supporting the person in a way that actually addresses the function of the behavior. Instead of just trying to stop a behavior from happening, a good BIP also focuses on what skills to teach so the person has a better way to get their needs met.
For example, if the FBA reveals that someone’s aggressive behavior is functioning as communication (a way of saying “this is too much” or “I need a break”), the intervention plan won’t just focus on reducing aggression. It will also include teaching a functional replacement behavior, something the person can do instead that serves the same purpose but in a way that works for everyone.
This is what makes behavior support sustainable. It’s not about suppressing behavior through consequences. It’s about understanding what a behavior is communicating and helping the person find a better path.
Can I Specially Request an FBA for My Child?
If your child is in school and has an IEP, or if you’ve been pushing for more behavior support and not getting it, you actually have the right to request an FBA in writing. Schools are required to conduct one in certain situations, particularly when a student’s behavior is impacting their ability to learn or leading to disciplinary action.
That said, school-based FBAs vary a lot in quality and follow-through. If you feel like the plan coming out of the school’s assessment isn’t working, or like the process didn’t really dig into what’s driving the behavior, an independent FBA through an outside provider is absolutely an option. Many families in Colorado choose to pursue one privately, either through their insurance, a waiver, or self-pay.
Colorado Behavior Assessments at Optimum Guidance Behavior Consulting
If you think an FBA might be the right next step, the process starts with a conversation. At OGBC, we talk with families first to understand the situation, answer questions, and figure out whether an assessment makes sense. There’s no pressure, and no expectation that you need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
We work with children, teens, and adults across Colorado. Whether you’re in the Louisville area, the Florence and Canon City area, Denver, Boulder, or somewhere in between, we’re happy to talk through what support might look like for your family.
Behavior that’s confusing or overwhelming doesn’t have to stay that way. Understanding why something is happening is the first step toward actually being able to change it, and that’s exactly what an FBA is designed to do.
We’re here when you’re ready to talk.
