Education Careers Newsletter-Spring 2025 Porterville College

What Does a Behavior Intervention Specialist Do?

A Behavior Intervention Specialist (BIS) is a behavioral health professional who helps children with behavioral challenges in school or at home. They work to improve a child's social interaction, life skills, and ability to learn

• A BIS's responsibilities include: Developing and Implementing Plans.
• Creating Behavioral intervention plans (BIPs) and individualized data collection systems for each student.
• Working with others.
• Communicating with teachers, administrators, and parents, and attending case review meetings.
• Supporting Instruction.
• Helping teachers create a positive classroom environment and resolve behavior barriers to learning.
• Promoting school safety.
• Working with administrators to reduce bullying, violence, and harassment.
• BISs are also known as behavior interventionists or behavior therapists. They often work with children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Job Overview

As a BIS, you might find yourself dealing with kids one-on-one, or in small groups. The typical day might see you in one classroom helping a disruptive child diagnosed with ADHD through a subject that they are having difficulty concentrating on… before moving to a special education class to work with a child with autism and severe learning deficits prepare to transition to a mainstream classroom… and then finally leading a small group session to help children with a variety of different developmental delays improve their reading skills.

Responsibilities for a Behavior Interventionist

Every Day As a Behavior Interventionist Brings Something Fun and Challenging. Many BIS positions with public school districts involve not only working in different classrooms, but also traveling between different schools. You can expect to spend time on the road to attend case review meetings, assist individual students, and meet with teachers who require assistance or advice for managing problems in their classrooms.

The position also involves frequent consultation with both other medical and psychological professionals as well as more mainstream teaching staff as the team works to develop and implement BIPs. You’ll also have to interact with parents, often helping them understand how their child is behaving during the school day and developing appropriate responses that are in-line with the BIP.

Performing psychological analysis. A behavior intervention specialist has a background in psychology that prepares them to observe clients and create treatment plans to help them adjust certain behaviors. This involves:

Observing stimuli that prompt behavioral reactions

Researching and documenting a client's learning history

Evaluating client conditions and responses regularly

Developing treatment plans such as behavior intervention plans (BIP), behavior support plans (BSP) or Individual Education Programs (IEP), which include parents or guardians

Providing treatment. After analysis, a behavior intervention specialist helps implement their treatment plans to increase a child's social and emotional skills. Here are some steps involved:

Working with kids individually or in small groups

Traveling to schools or homes to provide treatment

Counseling clients

Referring clients to other professionals if needed

A behavior intervention specialist works to educate those who might interact with their clients and the general public. They mainly they help inform parents and teachers who work with their clients so that they can consistently apply treatment plans at home and school. They also increase public awareness of behavioral patterns by sharing information about diagnoses. This involves:

Helping parents understand how a diagnosis affects behaviors

Communicating IEPs to parents and teachers

Advocating for clients

Educating teachers on how to help clients in classroom settings

Educating other adults such as medical professionals who regularly interact with clients

Conducting outreach about behavioral and mental health disorders

If it sounds like a challenging and wide-ranging set of responsibilities, it is. It’s also one of the most rewarding jobs you will ever have. And it’s going to take the right education to land a position as a behavior interventionist.

Qualifications for a Behavior Intervention Specialist

Decide what certification to get and where you want to work. A behavioral intervention specialist can work at several different levels and in a variety of environments. Before you commit to a certain education or certification, research where you can work and see what levels of education and experience they require.

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) sets the industry standard certifications. Here are the levels of certifications:

Registered Behavior Technician (RBT): This certification only requires a high school education. An RBT works with close supervision from a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

1. Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCABA): These professionals are eligible to perform analysis services under the supervision of a BCBA with this certification, which requires a bachelor's degree.

Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA): This certification requires a master's degree and enables you to work alone without supervision.

In addition, check local educator requirements if you'd like to work in a school. Some states like Virginia and Texas require specific certifications for people who work in schools.

2. Earn a bachelor's degree. To work at higher behavior intervention levels, obtain a bachelor's degree in early childhood development, education, psychology, nursing or a related field. Taking behavior-analytic coursework can help prepare you for later certification exams. You might look specifically for applied behavioral analysis classes and coursework on interventions for behavioral adjustment.

3. Continue your education. If you'd like to become a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst, you next complete a master's degree. You can use behavior-analysis coursework, faculty teaching and coursework or postdoctoral experience to qualify you for the BCBA exam.

4. Gain experience. Receiving any certification requires completing a certain number of hours of supervised experience, or fieldwork, in an area relevant to the work you'd like to do. After selecting your focus, find an organized and experienced supervisor. It's important to keep good records of your fieldwork because the BACB may verify this experience through an audit process at any time. Your amount of fieldwork depends on your route to certification. Depending on what level you are aiming for and what education or experience you already have, it can range from 500 to 2,000 hours.

The exception to this fieldwork requirement is the Registered Behavior Technician level. Because this level is designed for those without specific experience or education, it requires an initial competency exam but doesn't require fieldwork to get the initial certification.

5. Become certified. After you finish your education and gain experience, you can begin the certification process by sending in an application and fee. The process consists of taking a multiple-choice exam. The RBT exam has 80 questions covering skill acquisition and professional behavior and takes ninety minutes to complete. The BCABA and BCBA exams cover behavior-analytic skills and client responsibilities and take four hours to complete. After finishing the exam, you find out immediately whether you pass, and you can retake the exams if you need to.

Becoming certified by the BACB is different from completing a certificate program from a university. Most employers across the country accept the BACB certification levels. A certificate from a university program may qualify you for some jobs, but it may not be nationally recognized.

What is a Special Education Teacher?

Special education teachers work with students who have a wide range of learning, mental, emotional, and physical disabilities.

What does a Special Education Teacher Do?

Special education teachers work with students who have learning, mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. They adapt general education lessons and teach various subjects to students with mild to moderate disabilities. They also teach basic skills to students with severe disabilities.

Special education teachers usually do the following:

Assess students’ skills and determine their educational needs

Adapt general lessons to meet students’ needs

Develop Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for each student

Plan activities that are specific to each student’s abilities

Teach and mentor students as a class, in small groups, and one-on-one

Implement IEPs, assess students’ performance, and track their progress

Update IEPs throughout the school year to reflect students’ progress and goals

Discuss students’ progress with parents, other teachers, counselors, and administrators

Supervise and mentor teacher assistants who work with students with disabilities

Prepare and help students transition from grade to grade and from school to life outside of school

Qualifications for a Special Education Teacher

All states require special education teachers in public schools to have at least a bachelor's degree. Some require teachers to earn a degree specifically in special education.

All states require teachers in public schools to be licensed in the specific grade level that they teach. A license frequently is referred to as a certification. Those who teach in private schools typically do not need to be licensed.

Requirements for certification or licensure can vary by state but generally involve the following:

A bachelor’s degree with a minimum grade point average

Completion of a student-teaching program

Passing a background check

Passing a general teaching certification test, as well as a test that demonstrates knowledge of the subject the candidate will teach

Working Conditions

Most special education teachers work in public schools, teaching students from preschool to high school. Many work the traditional 10-month school year, but some work year-round.