Building a Team of Behavior Analysts in the Public School Setting

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

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:

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