Washoe Country School District
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Behavior Consulting
Behavior Analysis Office
380 Edison Way
Reno , Nevada 89502
Ph: (775) 861-4440
Fax: (775) 861-4497
Embedding Behavior Analysis Within
The Washoe County School District
Mission Statement
The Washoe County School District provides each student the opportunity to achieve his or her potential through a superior education in a safe and challenging environment in order to develop responsible and productive citizens for our diverse and rapidly changing community.
Devising a Plan
In order to achieve our mission statement, the district is comprised of multi-faceted teams of professionals within various departments to meet the needs of individual students and their diverse learning requirements.
Special Education Services
Behavioral support is critical in order to meet the needs of our diverse student population. The Special Education Department of the Washoe County School District works collaboratively to identify the unique and growing needs of our special education students and the unique behavioral challenges that accompany their individualized educational needs.
Behavior Analysis Within Special Education Services
Our first step is to identify teaching needs across special education classrooms, research critical learning components that are empirically based, formulate a training plan based on researched components, devise a measurement system and provide continued training to staff members serving our student's diverse educational needs. We are able to accomplish this mission by embedding behavior analytic expertise within Special Education Services. Our Department is comprised of three board certified behavior analysts (one assigned to Elementary Autism), a Secondary Autism Consultant, four behavior technicians, and two graduate interns from the University of Nevada Reno.
Training Strategies
Special Education Services offers several components of behavioral training to the District's classified and certified staff. One component offers Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) to all certified and classified staff. This training helps to minimize potential danger in the classroom, specifically when teaching students with aggressive behaviors. The primary focus of this training is to provide effective de-escalation strategies that support our students.
Another training component encompasses our "module" trainings which offer training in fundamental behavioral principles, conducting functional behavioral assessments in accordance with our state law, writing positive behavior intervention plans, implementing research-based behavioral techniques, and providing opportunities to practice and role play.
A third component is our more recent goal of developing training classrooms for a hands-on training experience. Within these classrooms, staff would have an opportunity to observe and interact with other trained staff. This would provide staff development in an applied setting and also enable new teachers an opportunity to learn how to set up and implement an appropriate learning environment that promotes successful outcomes for students.
A final component includes direct consultation to classroom staff to provide follow-up and assessment of additional training and some individualized support for our most unique cases. Our objective is to promote the growth and development of skills and abilities related to the application of effective behavioral principles and strategies at all of our school sites. As we develop necessary skills across our school sites, we are able to more consistently implement effective behavioral strategies within our schools, reduce problem behaviors, and teach students appropriate replacement behaviors. As we become better at measuring our outcomes, we will be able to provide other districts the opportunity to replicate and expand this model.
Outcome Measures
How can we measure our success? One component is social validity. We measure social validity by asking the participants who have taken a training course to provide feedback via a questionnaire. This questionnaire assesses if the staff indicate the training to be a helpful tool in teaching. We can also measure the number of functional behavioral assessments and positive behavioral intervention plans that are independently written and consistently implemented.
Other methods of measurement are more direct and include frequency and duration counts as well as Antecedent, Behavior and Consequence data to indicate necessary changes that need to be modified in positive behavior intervention plans.
Future Endeavors
As our population grows, so does the need to develop and enhance programs for students with disabilities. In order to meet these demands, it is crucial that we forge relationships with other community providers in order to provide needed support across settings and seamlessly transition our students from early childhood to adulthood.
