District Must Conduct Formal Behavior Assessment for Student With Brain Surgery History

A student who underwent brain surgery to treat epilepsy developed significant behavioral, memory, and language challenges. Her parents filed a due process complaint against Los Alamitos Unified School District, raising 18 issues about the adequacy of her IEP, assessments, and related services. The ALJ found mostly in the district's favor but ruled that the district's failure to conduct a formal functional behavior assessment and develop an individualized behavior support plan denied the student a FAPE. The district was ordered to hire an independent Board Certified Behavior Analyst to assess the student and develop a behavior support plan.

What Happened

Student is a young girl who had a history of seizures since infancy. In May 2012, she underwent a rare brain surgery — removal of parts of her left temporal lobe — to eliminate life-threatening daily seizures. The surgery worked, and she became seizure-free. However, it left her with significant challenges in memory, language, attention, and emotional regulation. Her cognitive abilities declined from average before surgery to borderline/low-average after. She also developed serious behavioral difficulties, including hitting and pinching peers, refusing to work, hiding under tables, and frequently being removed from her general education classroom.

Student attended kindergarten (repeated) and then first grade at Rossmoor Elementary School in Los Alamitos Unified School District, with an instructional aide throughout the school day. Her parents brought a prior due process complaint in 2012, which was settled. Beginning with the November 2013 IEP, they disagreed with the district's approach — particularly around behavior — and ultimately filed this complaint in April 2015, raising 18 separate issues about the adequacy of Student's assessments, services, placement, goals, and related services.

What the ALJ Found

The ALJ ruled mostly in the district's favor, finding that the district's academic placement, speech-language services, assessments (outside of behavior), IEP goals (outside of behavior), and parental participation procedures were all appropriate. Parents had not presented expert witnesses to support many of their claims — for example, no occupational therapist, audiologist, optometrist, or speech pathologist testified on Student's behalf — and the district's qualified staff credibly testified that Student did not need vision therapy, auditory integration therapy, assistive technology, a home ABA program, or additional occupational therapy.

However, the district lost on the behavior issue — and the ALJ's findings here were significant. The district's program specialist assigned to address Student's behaviors had never conducted a functional behavior assessment and, by her own admission, had never formally assessed Student. The district relied solely on informal observations, which the ALJ found legally insufficient. A formal behavior assessment must use a variety of tools and strategies — observation alone does not meet the legal standard. Meanwhile, school data showed Student engaged in over 250 maladaptive behaviors in 2013–2014 and 583 in 2014–2015, including 19 physically aggressive incidents in the later year. Without a proper assessment, the district had no reliable way to identify what was triggering Student's behaviors or what interventions would actually help. The behavior goals in both the 2013 and 2014 IEPs were found inadequate because they were not grounded in any assessment data and did not identify or address the underlying causes of the behaviors. The ALJ also found that the district's practice of allowing aides to remove Student from class when she acted out — without a consistent plan — may have actually rewarded the behavior rather than extinguishing it.

What Was Ordered

Within 10 business days of the decision, the district must contract with an independent, doctorate-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) of its choosing to conduct a functional behavior assessment of Student.
The assessment must be completed within 60 calendar days of the contract being signed.
The district must fund up to two hours of the assessor's time to attend the IEP team meeting held to discuss the assessment results and develop a behavior support plan with individualized goals.
All other requests for relief by Student were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Informal observations are not enough — a real behavior assessment requires multiple tools. If your child's behaviors are disrupting their learning or the learning of others, the district is legally required to conduct a formal Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) using a variety of assessment strategies. The district cannot satisfy this requirement simply by having a staff member watch your child and take notes.
The person conducting a behavior assessment must actually be qualified to do so. In this case, the district's program specialist was still working toward her behavior analysis certification and had never independently assessed a student. The law requires that assessments be conducted by someone who is knowledgeable in the area being assessed. If you have concerns about who is conducting your child's assessment, you have the right to ask about their qualifications.
Behavior goals must be grounded in assessment data to be meaningful. Goals that don't identify what triggers the behavior — or teach replacement behaviors — are not individualized to your child's needs. If your child's IEP has behavior goals but no FBA to support them, those goals may be legally inadequate.
Document everything, and keep district behavior logs. In this case, the district's own daily behavior logs were used to show that the program specialist's characterization of Student's behavior was inaccurate. Requesting copies of any behavior data or incident logs the school keeps on your child is a powerful tool — the data may tell a very different story than what staff report at IEP meetings.

What Happened

What the ALJ Found

What Was Ordered

Within 10 business days of the decision, the district must contract with an independent, doctorate-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) of its choosing to conduct a functional behavior assessment of Student.
The assessment must be completed within 60 calendar days of the contract being signed.
The district must fund up to two hours of the assessor's time to attend the IEP team meeting held to discuss the assessment results and develop a behavior support plan with individualized goals.
All other requests for relief by Student were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Informal observations are not enough — a real behavior assessment requires multiple tools. If your child's behaviors are disrupting their learning or the learning of others, the district is legally required to conduct a formal Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) using a variety of assessment strategies. The district cannot satisfy this requirement simply by having a staff member watch your child and take notes.
The person conducting a behavior assessment must actually be qualified to do so. In this case, the district's program specialist was still working toward her behavior analysis certification and had never independently assessed a student. The law requires that assessments be conducted by someone who is knowledgeable in the area being assessed. If you have concerns about who is conducting your child's assessment, you have the right to ask about their qualifications.
Behavior goals must be grounded in assessment data to be meaningful. Goals that don't identify what triggers the behavior — or teach replacement behaviors — are not individualized to your child's needs. If your child's IEP has behavior goals but no FBA to support them, those goals may be legally inadequate.
Document everything, and keep district behavior logs. In this case, the district's own daily behavior logs were used to show that the program specialist's characterization of Student's behavior was inaccurate. Requesting copies of any behavior data or incident logs the school keeps on your child is a powerful tool — the data may tell a very different story than what staff report at IEP meetings.