Behavioral Specialist

Position:         BEHAVIORAL SPECIALIST 

Reports to:   Supervisor of Pupil Personnel Services

Work Days: 186 days 

FLSA Status: Exempt

Description:    Highly qualified Behavior Intervention Specialist with knowledge and skills necessary to assist individuals, groups and systems through the application of positive behavior supports. The Behavior Specialist helps coordinate Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans that address students’ inappropriate behaviors and provide a means to help the students become more academically successful. Behavior Intervention Specialist also provides classroom and school-wide behavior management strategies.  The Behavior Intervention Specialist provides leadership and direction at the school level, working to design, implement, coordinate and evaluate a comprehensive behavior support program. In addition, the Behavior Specialist works directly and aggressively with identified students to adopt behaviors that substantially increase their academic performance. The Behavior Intervention Specialist will provide diversified strategies and activities specifically designed for targeted students.

Essential Functions:

• Assist staff in: defining and measuring behavior; understanding principles of reinforcement; teaching replacement behavior; implementing strategies for weakening behavior; data collection in response to the implementation of behavioral intervention; and identifying antecedents.  
• Facilitate team meetings with the identified student’s teachers and parents for the purpose of completing a Functional Behavioral Assessment.  
• Facilitate team meetings that: design Behavior Interventions Plans; address classroom organization, effective instruction, social skills instruction, and ethical issues; School-wide Positive Behavioral Support; and factors that affect effectiveness including social validity and treatment integrity.  
• Work with individual teachers, groups of teachers and/or the entire staff on issues such as: crisis intervention, learning and collaboration, and factors that can affect development and implementation of interventions.  
• Promote highly specialized and evidence-based positive behavior interventions in which students thrive: behavior instruction that is individualized, explicit, intensive, accelerated and provides ample practice.  
• Use ongoing assessments to maintain a record of student progress.  
• Develop a repertoire of assessment strategies consistent with instructional goals, teaching methods, and individual student needs to more accurately assess student behavior skills and understandings.  
• Regard assessment as a joint venture through which both student and teacher understanding is enhanced.  
• Create fair and equitable assessments to assess higher-order thinking and problem solving as well as individual skills, knowledge, and understandings.  
• Model good assessment processes that assist students in assessing their own work and behavior.  
• Provide recognition of a variety of student accomplishments and positive behaviors.  
• Work cooperatively with building administrators to promote positive student behavior by providing professional development that targets research, strategies and modeling of instructional practices to support teachers in their implementation of positive behavior support in their classrooms.  
• Continually supervise students to ensure a safe, non-threatening, nurturing environment where students can thrive.  
• Engage in on-going professional development to increase knowledge and skills of positive student behavior support for all students, targeted students and students who represent sub-group populations.  
• Engage parents in the “student behavior intervention plan” process and empower parents by providing them with skills and techniques to support the positive behavior development of their child.  
• Conduct conflict resolution and peer mediation sessions.  
• Review behavior referrals and data reports.  
• Participate in building level MTSS team and/or grade level meetings, as appropriate.  
• Consult with School Social Worker, School Counselor, Content Specialist and Teachers.  
• Attend professional development opportunities to maintain high level of skill and knowledge of current research and practices  
• Serve as a consultant to administrators, teachers, and parents.  
• Organize and schedule time commitments to meet demands of the job. 
• Comply with all safety policies, practices and procedures; report all unsafe activities to supervisor and/or Human Resources.  
• Participate in proactive team efforts to achieve District, building, departmental and/or grade level goals.  
• Provide leadership to others through example and sharing of knowledge/skill.

Other Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serves as a role model for students in how to conduct themselves as members of the Bedford City Schools.
• Maintains respect at all times for confidential information.
• Makes contact with the public with tact & diplomacy.
• Interacts in a positive manner with staff, students, parents.
• Serves as a liaison among the community. School district, volunteers, parent groups, businesses, Board of Education and other educational entities.
• Performs other duties as assigned by the Superintendent or designee.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Education 
• Special Education or Psychology background preferred
• Highly qualified teacher with full State of Ohio certification  
• Minimum of five years successful classroom teaching experience  
• Expert knowledge of function-based intervention planning for developing behavior change strategies that focus on reducing problem behavior and increasing more appropriate behavior  
• Expert knowledge of techniques needed to successfully complete effective Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA), function –based interventions, and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP).  
• Exceptional knowledge in the use of assessment and assessment data to inform instruction and prescribe work plans for individual students.  
• Expert knowledge in research based instructional strategies and ability to implement them effectively  
• Exceptional knowledge in the use of technology to support instruction  
• Demonstrates ability to plan and evaluate strategies for improving instruction  
• Ascribes to the philosophy that all children can succeed and demonstrates the commitment to do what is necessary to make this a reality  
• Demonstrates exceptional skill in the roles of a teacher leader: collaborator, action researcher, reflective practitioner, and learner advocate
• Trained in nonviolent crisis intervention preferred

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Board of Education policies and procedures, applicable sections
• Administrative procedures, applicable sections
• Office practices and procedures
• Word processing software
• Database software
• Correct use of grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Communicate effectively in written and oral form
• Interact and respond appropriately to the students, staff and parents
• Classify and organize records
• Maintain confidentiality
• Keyboard

Equipment Operated:

• Subject-specific equipment, e.g., computer scanner, CD burner, zip drive, digital cameras, telephone

Additional Working Conditions:

• Occasional exposure to blood, bodily fluids and tissue
• Occasional operation of a vehicle in inclement weather conditions, i.e., being prepared to come to school on all scheduled workdays except calamity days
• Occasional interaction among unruly children
• Occasionally lift, carry, push and pull various items up to a maximum of 50 pounds, e.g., classroom materials and supplies
• Frequent requirement to sit, stand, walk, hear, see, read, crouch, kneel and stoop
• Occasional requirement to balance, climb and use color vision
• Occasional requirement to operate school district vehicle
• The employee shall remain free of any alcohol or non-prescribed controlled substance in the workplace throughout his/her employment in the District

This job description is subject to change and in no manner states or implies that these are the only duties and responsibilities to be performed by the incumbent. The incumbent will be required to follow the instructions and perform the duties required by the incumbent’s supervisor, appointing authority.

The information contained in this job description is for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) and is not an exhaustive list of the duties performed for this position.  Additional duties are performed by the individuals currently holding this position and additional duties may be assigned.