Examining the Efficacy of a Basic Functional Behavioral Assessment Training Package for School
Personnel
Sheldon L. Loman and Robert H. Horner wrote the article "Examining the Efficacy of a Basic
Functional Behavioral Assessment Training Package for School Personnel," which was published in the
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions in 2014. The study's purpose was to establish whether typical
school personnel can be trained to conduct FBAs for students with mild to moderate behavioral
difficulties.
Twelve school professionals completed a 4-hour training on Basic FBA procedures. Of these then
ten participants, eight proceeded to conduct an FBA of a student in their school. The students were in K-
4 levels, and the majority of them were boys, and four of them had individual Education Plans for
learning disability.
The dependent variables were the technical accuracy of the FBAs completed by the school
personnel (rated on a 5-point technical checklist) and the extent to which the function of behavior that
the school personnel identified corresponded with the function that was discovered through formal
functional analysis. The reliability data was obtained for 60% of the FBAs with inter-observer reliability of
100%. A second assessment compared the school personnel’s level of understanding of FBAs before and
after the training.
Concurrent multiple baselines across participants' designs were employed. Procedures used in
experimental design included preliminary training of the candidates, the use of FBA skills on actual cases
as well as functional analysis to support the FBA results. Though structured interviews and observations
as a part of training, information that exposed different behavioral functions was a notable highlight of
the program. After the training, the participants of schools' personnel increased from 39% to 92%
knowledge of FBA by passing the FBA knowledge test. According to the results of the study, all the FBAs
made by participants corresponded to 100% of the technical adequacy criteria. Most importantly, for all
10 students, the function of behavior identified by the school personnel or during the actual FBA
matched with the formal functional analysis results, indicating the high reliability of the training
procedures used.
In terms of limitations, the sample size was small; all personnel of the study were from the same
district, and the first author conducted all training and functional analyses. However, the study offers
initial findings that suggest that school personnel can be effectively educated on how to complete
accurate FBAs. Participants described the procedures as acceptable. Follow-up studies should explore if
the school's personnel sustain the implementation of FBA procedures and if FBA outcomes translate into
accurate function-based behavior support plans.
