IDEA focuses on prevention and proactively addressing behavioral concerns of students with disabilities that may impede their learning. Definition: Functional behavioral assessment is the process of determining why a student engages in challenging behavior and how the student's behavior relates to the environment. Functional assessments describe the relationship between a skill or performance problem and variables that contribute to its occurrence. FBA's can provide the CSE with information to develop a hypothesis as to: * why the student engages in the behavior; * when the student is most likely to demonstrate the behavior; and * situations in which the behavior is least likely to occur. Components of a Functional Behavioral Assessment: * Identification of the problem behavior * Definition of the behavior in concrete terms * Identification of the contextual factors that contribute to the behavior * Formulation of a hypothesis regarding the general conditions under which a behavior occurs and probable consequences that serve to maintain it. Behavior Intervention Plans: Functional behavioral assessements provide specific information to the CSE concerning the design and implementation of effective strategies to address a student's behaviors. The identification of positive behavioral supports should be based on the functional behavioral assessment and address short-term prevention, the teaching of alternative skills, responses to problem behaviors and long-term prevention.