The right to a free appropriate public education is one of the most consequential legal guarantees in the history of disability services in the United States. For Board Certified Behavior Analysts, understanding FAPE and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is not merely an academic exercise — it is central to the ethical obligation to advocate for clients and to ensure that behavioral services are delivered in the least restrictive environment that meets each student's needs.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Council of Autism Service Providers
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Join Free →In 1968 a group of professionals commissioned a task force to study the issue of children being excluded from school in the city of Boston, MA (Task Force on Children Out of School, 1968). What they found shocked them; thousands of children were systematically excluded from attending school or accessing meaningful instruction on the basis of cultural differences, physical differences, and mental and behavioral differences. However, despite the advancement of legal protections and improved methods to educate even the most complex students, many coming from behavior analysis, children across the country still face school exclusion for largely the same reasons. Autism service providers are well positioned to effect change on this issue by advocating for and filling the continuum of services outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004). Coordinated advocacy is needed urgently to address this issue. This presentation discusses the history of school exclusion, the advancements that should allow us to prevent it, and actions autism service providers can take to prevent it from occurring. Specific topics include: legal protections and precedents for students with disabilities, the role of behavior analysis in special education, tools for advocating for educational rights, and the logistics and business benefits of operating a special education program.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
| APA | 0 | — |
| COA | 1 | — |
Dr. Brad Stevenson oversees the development and implementation of programs and services, as well as the daily operations for Melmark Carolinas. Brad entered the field of special education, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and human services as an undergraduate student in 2004 at Melmark New England. He accepted a position with Melmark in 2017 with the purpose of working with the senior leadership on expanding Melmark’s mission footprint in Charlotte, N.C. During that time, he also served as part-time faculty in the Department of Special Education and Child Development at UNC Charlotte. Brad completed his master’s degree in 2008 and the Behavior Analysis Certification Board course sequence at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2009. He earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) in 2017. After relocating to Charlotte in 2009, Dr. Stevenson worked in the local public schools as a teacher of students diagnosed on the autism spectrum. He then transitioned to a career as a consultant, providing ABA services and working with schools, families, and other professionals to assess and design behavior analytic programs for children with autism and other developmental disabilities across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Dr. Stevenson is a member of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), North Carolina Association for Behavior Analysis, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and the North Carolina Council for Exceptional Children.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
244 research articles with practitioner takeaways
205 research articles with practitioner takeaways
194 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.