26-27 Behavior Specialist

Job Title: Behavior Support Specialist

Terms of employment: Teacher calendar days plus additional 16 days and benefits provided according to Board policy.

Qualifications:

• Missouri Teachers Certification, preferably in Special Education, School Psychology or related field
• Experience working with students with social/emotional and behavioral needs

Reports to: Special Programs Coordinator

Essential Job Functions:

*Provides leadership and direction at the school level, working to design, implement, coordinate, and evaluate a comprehensive behavior support program.

*Provide comprehensive behavior analysis services to students in schools.

*Work collaboratively with district BCBAs to provide high quality services in the areas of functional behavioral assessment, positive behavior support plan development, consultation, and staff training.

Other Job Duties:

• Work cooperatively with building administrators to promote positive student behavior by providing professional development that targets research, strategies and modeling of instructional practices to support teachers in their implementation of positive behavior support in their classrooms
• Train and coach through the development and implementation of programs, and best practices related to instruction using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
• Create and assist district staff with the development and implementation of behavior plans, ABA programs and other appropriate programs for students that present behavior/learning challenges.
• Work with students who exhibit inappropriate behaviors and provide support and professional learning for staff who work with students who exhibit such.
• Provide professional learning and conduct functional analysis assessments of behavior for students with complex and/or severe behaviors in accordance with both Federal and State laws and regulations.
• Conduct functional behavioral assessments and write reports summarizing results
• Develop positive behavior support plans utilizing evidence-based interventions
• Assess a student's instructional needs and develop appropriate programming
• Present assessment results to parents and school teams
• Train staff on positive behavior support plans and instructional programs and monitor fidelity
• Assist staff in: defining and measuring behavior; understanding principles of reinforcement; teaching new behavior; implementing strategies for weakening behavior; and identifying antecedents.
• Facilitate team meetings with the identified student's teachers and parents for the purpose of completing a Functional Behavioral Assessment
• Facilitate team meetings that: design Behavior Intervention Plans; address classroom organizations, effective instruction, social skills instruction, and ethical issues; School-wide Positive Behavioral Support; and factors that affect effectiveness including social validity and treatment integrity
• Work with individual teachers, groups of teachers and/or the entire staff on issues such as: crisis intervention, learning and collaboration issues, and factors that can affect development and implementation of interventions
• Promote highly specialized positive behavior interventions in which "at-risk" students thrive: behavior instruction that is explicit, intensive, accelerated and provides ample practice
• Use ongoing assessments to maintain a record of student progress
• Develop a repertoire of assessment strategies consistent with instructional goals, teaching methods, and individual student needs to more accurately assess student behavior skills and understandings
• Regard assessment as a joint venture through which both student and teacher understanding is enhanced
• Create fair and equitable assessments to assess higher-order thinking and problem solving as well as individual skills, knowledge, and understandings
• Model good assessment processes that assist students in assessing their own work and behavior
• Provide recognition of a variety of student accomplishments and positive behaviors
• Continually supervise students to ensure a safe, non-threatening, nurturing environment where students can thrive
• Engage in on-going professional development to increase knowledge and skills of positive student behavior support for all students, targeted students and students who represent sub-group populations
• Participate and work as a collaborative member of the school district's Student Support Team providing professional guidance on intervention strategies for referred students
• Attend professional development opportunities to maintain high level of skill and knowledge of current research and practices
• Serve as a consultant to administrators, teachers, social workers, counselors, and parents
• Organize and schedule time commitments to meet demands of the job
• Participate in proactive team efforts to achieve District, building, departmental and/or grade level goals
• Provide leadership to others through example and sharing of knowledge/skill
• Collect, analyze, and graph data, and prepare reports for the purpose of documenting case history, assessments, and treatment
• Provide ongoing monitoring of student data and make programming adjustments as needed
• Contribute to ongoing research in the school setting
• Comply with FERPA, and all federal and state confidentiality laws