A few months ago, a few BCBA's from the Boulder Valley School District reached out to me and offered to share the story of how they are fielding a team of Behavior Analysts in the public school setting.
As someone who has spent a career consulting to public schools, I was instantly sold. I believe that as if this recording, the BVSD employs about 10 BCBA's, and in Session 139, I'm joined by four of them: Kelly Miller, Cosmina Barbat, Stephanie Gregory, and Shelly Roberts.
We were also fortunate enough to be joined by their fearless leader, their Director of Special Education, Joy Larson. Someone who understood the value of developing internal behavior-analytic resources to support the district's students.
In this episode we cover the following:
- How the district decided to invest in the hiring of internally placed behavior analysts.
- How the district BCBA's work collaboratively with professionals in other disciplines.
- How BCBA's support students not just with specialized educational and behavioral needs, but also in mainstream educational settings.
- How working as a public school employee is different than working in an at-home or clinic setting.
- And advice for schools that want to hire their own BCBA's, as well as advice for BCBA's who want to dip their toes into the public school waters.
Lastly, I think the argument for having more Behavior Analysts in school settings speaks for itself. As we discuss in the interview, these amazing BCBA's have contributed to reducing Boulder Valley's out of district placements by 70%!
Here are the links for Session 139:
- The Boulder Valley School District.
- Just in case you're thinking of relocating.
- Well Managed Schools curriculum.
- The Mystery Motivator.
- Questions / comments for these guests? Kelly Miller has agreed to field them. Contact her here.
Session 139 is brought to you with generous support from:
- How-to-ABA. Being a BCBA can be lonely and overwhelming. At howtoaba.com, we help BCBA’s feel supported and confident by providing easy to access printables, CEU's and a collaborative community. In the howtoaba.com membership, Shira Karpel and Shayna Gaunt share their best resources from years of practice in the field. Whether you’re a beginner or a long time practitioner, you will benefit from both these resources as well as a supportive community. Imagine, having an all-in-one resource to save you time and help your clients, having getting your toughest questions answered, and being part of a collaborative group of professionals to share ideas. Plus, your monthly pro membership includes CEU’s! Along with over 1000 ABA professionals, howtoaba.com will help you save time, feel confident and master what you love! For more information, Go to howtoaba.com/joinbxresource. When you join today and use code BOP, you’ll receive 10% off a yearly subscription (includes CEU’s!).
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Matt, this was a fascinating podcast to listen to. I work in a district in CO that is similar to BVSD, yet we have less than half of the BCBAs. It was interesting to learn of their experiences and systems. Is this podcast available for CEUs? I was unable to access a quiz or purchase the session. Thank you again fir great information! Kaili Young BCBA, MA
Hi Kaily, I’m really glad you enjoyed this episode! I am not offering CE’s for this one, but have them available for other episodes here. Thanks for being a listener to the show!!!
This was a great session! So great to hear from fellow BCBAs that work in school districts. In Seminole County Florida we have also built a Behavior and Curriculum Support Team focused on merging a behavioral approach into the traditional education pedagogy. After 5 years of implementation of the ESE Curriculum Project with district funds, we were awarded a 4 million dollar federal grant from the office of Education Innovation and Research to study the effectiveness of this model in 13 additional elementary schools. (Link to project narrative) https://oese.ed.gov/files/2019/11/U411C190273-Seminole-County-Public-Schools-Narrative.pdf
The curriculum project is a systems change focusing on how to approach providing effective instruction for students with disabilities. We are attempting to not only replicate the AMAZING work done by the PaTTAN Autism Initiative for learners functioning below a Kindergarten level, but also utilizing Direct Instruction for students who are two or more years below grade level with the support of the National Institute for Direct Instruction.
Thank you for providing this opportunity to learn from others who are doing this work across the country! It truly is not a “speed boat and is a slow moving cruise ship” but the work is so important. Our science has so much to offer in this applied setting.
Whoa!!! This is awesome, especially the DI aspect of this. Congrats on getting BA out there in the mainstream, and please keep in touch to let me know how it goes!!!