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The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Building a Team of Behavior Analysts in the Public School Setting

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Matt Cicoria

Science, Mental Health, Skinner, Behaviorism, Behaviorconsultant, Aba, Behavioralpsychology, Health & Fitness, Appliedbehavioranalysis, Autism, Acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy, Fba, Social Sciences, Verbalbehavior, Bcba, Functionalassessment, Discretetrial

4.8648 Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2020

⏱️ 93 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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:

Session 139 is brought to you with generous support from:

  • How-to-ABABeing 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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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, everyone, welcome to session 139 of the Behavioral Observations podcast. You know, a few months ago,

0:06.0

some BCBAs from the Boulder Valley School District reached out to me and offered to share the story

0:10.5

of how they are fielding a team of behavior analysts in the public school setting.

0:15.4

And as someone who spent a career consulting to public schools, I was instantly sold.

0:23.5

I believe that as of this recording,

0:28.8

they employ about 10 BCBAs, and in this session, I'm joined by four of them, Kelly Miller,

0:35.1

Cosmina Barbit, Stephanie Gregory, and Shelley Roberts. We're also fortunate to be joined by their director of special education, Joy Larson.

0:38.4

We covered a wide range of topics in this episode, including how the district decide to invest

0:43.4

in hiring internal behavior analysts in the first place, how the district BCBAs work

0:48.9

collaboratively with professionals and other disciplines, how the BCBA support students not just with specialized education and behavioral needs,

0:57.9

but also in mainstream educational settings.

1:01.1

How working in the public school setting is different than working in an at-home or clinic

1:06.1

setting.

1:07.1

And we close the show by getting some advice for schools that want to hire their own BCBAs, as well as advice for BCBAs who want to dip their toes into the public school waters.

1:19.3

Lastly, I think the argument for having more BCBAs in school settings speaks for itself.

1:23.7

As we discuss in the interview, these amazing BCBAs have contributed to reducing

1:28.0

Boulder Valley's out-of-district placements by 70%. So just looking only at a financial

1:34.4

angle here, the investment is very likely paid for itself and then some. And there's

1:40.8

numerous other contributions that these folks have made, bottom line, notwithstanding.

1:47.5

So there's likely to be some questions for these folks.

1:52.6

Kelly Miller has volunteered to field them for the team.

1:56.5

So if you want to follow up with them, feel free to go to the show notes for this episode.

...

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