Class-wide Function-Based Intervention Teams: A Research to Practice Agenda for Functional Behavior Assessment for Students with and At Risk for SBD
Debra Kamps, Howard Wills, and Charles Greenwood
Institute of Education Sciences, July 2007

ABSTRACT

The Surgeon General’s 2000 report on children’s mental health estimated that 14 million children and adolescents have mental illness or 20% of the general population. The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health reported “If the system does not appropriately screen and treat them early, these childhood disorders may persist and lead to a downward spiral of school failure, poor employment opportunities, and poverty in adulthood” (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2004). In addition, the cost of long-term mental health care and intervention necessitated by escalating severe behaviors exceeds $67 billion in the U.S. (Hu, 2004; National Institutes of Health). Thus the need for evidence-based interventions for severe problem behavior exhibited by school-age children is great.

Protections in IDEA mandate the use of functional behavior assessment (FBA) as a means of ensuring effective evidence-based intervention for students with behavior problems. Unfortunately, a disconnect exists between assessment, intervention, and school practice using FBA procedures. The purpose of the proposed project is to conduct efficacy and replication trials (CFDA 84.324B GOAL 3) of the effectiveness of the Class-wide Function-Based Intervention Teams Program (CW-FIT) for students with and at risk for Serious Behavior Disorders (SBD), and to implement studies of FBA linked individualized intervention for the most challenging students. The CW-FIT Program includes four elements designed from hundreds of empirical studies on the assessment and treatment of problem behavior: teaching socially-appropriate communicative skills to access attention or brief escape, extinction or eliminating potential reinforcement (attention, escape) for problem behavior, strengthening alternative or replacement behaviors i.e., differential reinforcement at individual levels within the context of peer groups with shared group contingencies, and self-management for program maintenance (see attached description and skill charts). Pilot data from thirteen classrooms and over 230 students has shown promising results in improved student behavior. Improved student behavior translates to significant levels of increased instruction time in urban classrooms (see attached figures). The following objectives are outlined to accelerate the function-based intervention research to practice agenda in school settings.

Objective 1. Conduct randomized experimental-control group studies of the Class-wide Function Based Intervention Teams Program in elementary school settings.

Objective 2. Conduct Functional Behavior Assessment studies to standardize procedures, develop Individualized Function Based Interventions/Teams (I-FIT), and promote data-based decision making within school settings.

Objective 3. Establish training procedures for school-based staff to (a) screen for risk at the individual level, (b) implement the CW-FIT, (c) implement FBA procedures for SBD and at risk students in need of intervention enhancement (I-FIT), and (d) monitor interventions including increased student engagement and decreased classroom disruptions.

Contact:         Deb Kamps/Howard Wills  
                        913 321-3143 ext 209/207

                        dkamps@ku.edu