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"...made the learning for me and my staff manageable."
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"I would highly recommend Project Access and Lauren to anyone."
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"I love that the resources will continue to be available as I complete more FBA and BIP for students"
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"...step-by-step directions...and also maintained the time table we needed."
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"We were able to practice each step and make sure we had a good understanding before moving on."
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"...detailed, yet easy to understand"
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"...nothing tops the personal time, effort, and expertise."
FBA Training
Short read: Project ACCESS offers five different opportunities for learners to learn about FBA. These are detailed in the chart below which lists delivery modalities, time committment, types of certificates/acknowledgement of learning, target audience, and availability. Three are available now, one will be available after winter break, and one is planned for next school year. If you want to earn an endorsement pin or progress toward a Project ACCESS Autism Credential Pathways stripe/badge, then you will want to complete the most rigorous training. The three FBA learning opportunities available now are bulleted below (these are highlighted in green in the table below, red options will be available soon):
- Online Autism Educator Academy 4-hour FBA workshop This is an overview, you will learn about FBA but you won't complete one in the training.
- Recorded Zoom FBA Webinars 5-hour training with an option do complete an FBA at your school (will take addition hours above the five or so of instruction) CHOOSE THIS OPTION IF YOU WANT TO BE A TEAM LEADER IN YOUR BUILDING FOR CONDUCTING FBAS (AND THEN WHEN ENROLLED, CHOOSE THE OPTION TO COMPLETE AN FBA--COMPLETERS WILL GET A BADGE AND A PIN AFFIRMING THEIR ABILITY TO CONDUCT AN FBA
- In-person full-day workshop (by arrangement, please reach out). In this case, Project ACCESS will come to your school or to your RPDC and hold an in-person training. You will get an overview, but you won't actually complete an FBA during the training.
Longer read: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that schools perform Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) in certain situations, particularly in discipline situations involving students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Moreover, the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) encourages FBA as a best practice procedure when developing interventions for interfering behaviors when the function, or reason, for the behavior is unclear. Function-based approaches have been shown by research to have a higher likelihood of success in shaping positive pro-social behaviors and eliminating or reducing interfering or problem behaviors. However, the law does not state who in a school should lead the FBA team or what kind of training they need, except to say that the FBA should be conducted by someone with knowledge of applied behavior analysis.
Project ACCESS has developed a series of FBA training opportunities (five in total) that are tailored to educators' roles and responsibilities in schools to meet the needs of a district as mandated by law and best practice. Here is a table showing the different offerings we have for helping districts grow capacity to use this important tool.
| Training Name, Delivery Method, and Registration Links | Time Commitment | Target Audience | Will I create an FBA in this training? | Outcome of training in terms of certificates or awards |
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Online FBA asynchronous half-day workshop Available Any Time |
About 3 to 4 hours, work at your own pace | Any school staff including para-educators. | No, but you will learn to understand and identify all of the conceptual phases and procedures. |
You can earn a certificate of attendance or a certificate of achievement depending on what you choose for this version of FBA training. This training is part of our Pathways program and qualifies for part of our autism credential program and you can get graduate credit but anyone can take it. |
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In-person FBA/BIP full-day workshp By arrangement with District PD or via RPDC (contact us at projectaccess@missouristate.edu) |
About 5 to 6 hours, live in-person | Any teacher, especially special education teachers, process coordinators, directors, school psychologists, counselors, speech-language pathologists, and behavior interventionists. | No, but you will complete some pieces such as an operational definition of a behavior, and you will learn how to collect and analyze data. |
You will receive a certificate of attendence just for participating. You can also receive a certificate of achievement if you turn in the activities and exercises for feedback. This training is part of our Pathways program and qualifies for part of our autism credential program and you can get graduate credit. |
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Series of seven after school Zoom webinars (watch live or recorded) Currently only recorded available, register for FBA webinar that here. Watch DESE SELs messages for upcoming live sessions or contact us at projectaccess@missouristate.edu |
About 5 to 6 hours for the in-person portion, more if you work on completing parts of an FBA or an entire FBA with coaching from our staff. BIP is optional. Learning about ABA and Teaming is recommended and we offer these workshops, but they are not "integrated" as they are below in our Consult Model. You will be assigned a Project ACCESS Autism Resource Specialist/Coach as part of this training. |
Any teacher, especially special eduation teachers, process coordinators, directors, school psychologist, counselors, speech-language pathologists, and behavior interventionists |
It is possible to complete an FBA during or after sitting in on these sessions. You can learn each phase, complete those steps, and turn them in for feedback from one of our Autism Resource Specialists/Coaches. Most people who attend learn about FBA, download the forms, may practice, but generally they don't produce an FBA on their own. If you plan to complete an FBA, the better choice is our FBA consult model training that is last in this table (it's first come-first served and may be a little bit harder to get into). |
You will receive a certificate of attendence just for participating. You can also receive a certificate of achievement if you turn in the activities and exercises for feedback. This training is part of our Pathways program and qualifies for part of our autism credential and you can get graduate credit. We award enamel pins to anyone who completes an FBA. This is part of our Endorsement Program that replaces the older In-district Autism Consultant Program. |
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Intensive two day in-person FBA Bootcamp By arrangement, this is a new training that we are developing for fall 2026. Watch DESE SELs messages or contact us at projectaccess@missouristate.edu. for more information. |
About 12 hours, live in-person An instructional team will lead you through training. Afterward, you will be assigned a Project ACCESS Autism Resource Specialist/Coach as part of this training. |
This is recommended for district personnel who will be leading an FBA team. Generally this will be a lead or master teacher, a process coordinator, a counselor, a school psychologist, a sped director or other administrator, or a speech language pathologist |
Yes, but it will be a "mock" FBA with data we provide to you as there is not time to learn about and do all of the steps with an authentic case in such a compressed time. |
Program completers will receive a Certificate of Achievement. Like the webinar version, this training for FBA meets requirement in our Pathways program and qualifies for part of our autism credential and you can get graduate credit. If you go back to your school and complete an FBA with our coaching help, you can earn an Endorsement Pin |
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FBA Consult Model Training Blended personal/district Zoom coaching with asynchronous lessons. This is a new format for the training that we are developing for January 2026. Watch DESE SELs messages or contact us at projectaccess@missouristate.edu. for more information. |
About 12 to 15 hours, much of this is fieldwork you will do at your school. Work at your own pace. This includes both BIP and FBA. There are about 6 hours of training that we recommend as "Pre-learning" and about 6 more of "Post-learning" that we recommend will be helpful for implementation of your resulting Behavior Intervention Plan This is our most intense and comprehensive training. If you do all of it, it will take you about 25 hours. |
This is recommended for district personnel who will be leading an FBA team. Generally this will be a lead or master teacher, a process coordinator, a counselor, a school psychologist, a sped director or other administrator, or a speech language pathologist |
Yes, this is the only FBA training that we have that learners produce an authentic FBA that addresses a real student behavior that they want to work on (please do not choose an emergent behavior or one that is severe--this training will take most people a few weeks or more to complete). This training also include some ABA learning, EBP learning, and more if you do all of the PRE and POST recommended training. |
This is our highest level and most comprehensive FBA Training. When you finish this training, you can optionally choose to apply this toward graduate credit, you can apply this toward a Project ACCESS Autism Credential as part of our Pathways program, and you will get an enamel "FBA" pin for your badge and become an FBA Team Leader at your school building or district. |
As you can see, Project ACCESS offers many levels of this training that will vary with your role and responsibility at your school. Many of these are time-intensive regarding the individualized coaching that we provide, so we need to provide this disclaimer: These services will be on a first come-first served basis with potential for a wait list if the number of requests exceed our staff ability to include everyone.
How much does it cost?
Project ACCESS is offering this service for free! We are funded through DESE to provide training and resources for Missouri's public schools.
Here we relist just the registration and enrollment links for the programs above that are available right now for your convenience:
- Online Autism Educator Academy 4-hour FBA workshop
- Recorded Zoom FBA Webinars 5-hour training with an option do complete an FBA at your school (will take addition hours above the five or so of instruction)
- In-person full-day workshop (by arrangement, please reach out)
Some Testimonials for the FBA Consult Model Training