Living the Speducator Dream

  Behavioral Incidents Happen! It doesn't matter if you have the best staff/team, FBA, BIP, updated reinforcement inventory, or relationship with a student - behavioral incidents happen! What's important is how you handle the incident and how you make changes following the incident. One of my favorite tools to use following a behavioral incident is the Staff Debrief Form. That way, there is documentation of the conversation, and also - if I have action steps following the chat, I can remember what I need to do! Of course, finding TIME to debrief is always the biggest issue, but IMO, the debrief is a step that cannot be skipped.  This is also a good time to plug A-B-C (Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence) data. If you aren't already collecting this data, now is a good time to start! Link to a sample/editable ABC data sheet on TPT here . This is the debrief form my team uses (linked below): ...and here's how we use it. Date, team members, date of incident, time of inciden...

 REINFORCEMENT VS. BREAKS - PART 2 REINFORCEMENT  In Part 1 , I explained my hot take that an effective special educator would never take away breaks from a student as a consequence. Students should never EARN breaks. Breaks are a regulation tool. Students MAY earn reinforcers.  Here is a general overview of how to structure reinforcement within a special education classroom. Student "rules" should be tied to IEP social or behavior goals If a student has a social or behavior goal for an identified area of growth, there is no reason to create a reinforcement system for a totally different skill.  Likewise, narrow the focus of behaviors you're trying to modify. (A student typically would never have 5 rules! I like to keep it to 2-3, but this is predetermined by how many IEP goals the student has.) Reinforcement tied to student rules Students may be aware of the social or behavior skills they're working on. Love that! Bonus points if they're self-monitoring their pro...