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Behavior Support

How to Request an FBA from Your Child's School in Indiana

September 15, 2026 · Carissa Harrington, LCSW

A young boy in a white button-up shirt sitting quietly beside a brown wooden table

If your child is getting called out of class, sent to the office, or coming home with another incident report, someone has probably already told you what the behavior is. Defiant. Disruptive. Attention-seeking. Choosing not to comply.

What almost nobody tells you is what the behavior is for.

That's what a functional behavioral assessment is supposed to answer, and it is one of the most useful things you can ask a school for. It is also one of the most misunderstood — including, in my experience, by some of the people conducting them.

Here's how to ask for one in Indiana, and what to expect once you do.

What an FBA actually is

Indiana's rules define a functional behavioral assessment as a process that uses data to identify patterns in a student's behavior and the purpose or function of that behavior for the student (511 IAC 7-32-41).

That last part is the whole point. Behavior is communication. A child who bolts from the classroom every day at 10:15 is telling you something, and "he's being defiant" is not an answer — it's a description with a judgment attached. A real FBA asks what happens right before, what the child gets or avoids right after, and what pattern holds across weeks of data.

A good FBA produces something you can act on. A weak one produces a paragraph restating what everyone already knew.

The FBA is also the foundation for the behavior intervention plan. A BIP built on a thin FBA is a guess in a nice font.

The part most parents don't know

Here is the distinction that changes how you ask.

In Indiana, an FBA is sometimes a formal educational evaluation and sometimes not. The rule says so directly: an FBA may require written parental consent if it is an educational evaluation, and written consent is not required when the FBA is simply a review of existing data (511 IAC 7-32-41).

Those are two very different things.

If the school treats your request as a review of existing data, they can pull some old office referrals, glance at the file, and call it done. No consent form. No timeline. No obligation to observe your child.

If the FBA is conducted as part of an educational evaluation, it comes with real protections: written parental consent, a defined scope, a deadline, and a case conference committee meeting at the end of it.

So don't just ask for "an FBA." Ask for a functional behavioral assessment as part of an educational evaluation or reevaluation. Those extra words are the difference between a process with a clock on it and a favor someone may or may not get to.

How to ask

Either a parent or the school can request an educational evaluation (511 IAC 7-40-4(a)). You do not need the school's permission to ask, and you do not need a diagnosis first.

Indiana allows the request to be made verbally or in writing. Make it in writing anyway. The date of your written request is what starts the clock and what you'll point to later if the timeline slips.

Send it by email to the principal and the special education director, and copy your child's case manager if they have one.

A request you can copy

Copy this, fill in the brackets, and send it to the principal and the special education director.

Subject: Written request for educational evaluation — [child's name], [grade], [school]

Dear [name],

I am writing to request a full educational evaluation for my child, [name], date of birth [DOB], currently in [grade] at [school].

I am specifically requesting that the evaluation include a functional behavioral assessment conducted as part of the educational evaluation, including direct observation across settings and times of day, review of discipline and attendance records, and interviews with staff who work with [name] and with me.

My concerns are: [two or three specific, dated examples — "On September 8 and again on September 15, [name] left the classroom during math and was found in the hallway." Avoid adjectives. Use what happened and when.]

Please send me written notice of the school's decision, and the consent form if the evaluation is proposed. I understand the school will respond within ten instructional days.

Thank you,

[your name and phone number]

Keep a copy. If you send it by email, do not delete the sent message.

What happens next, and when

Within 10 instructional days of your request, the school must give you written notice either proposing the evaluation or refusing it (511 IAC 7-40-4(d)). A refusal has to explain your right to mediation or a due process hearing.

If they propose it, they need your written consent before they can evaluate.

Once you sign that consent, the school has 50 instructional days to complete the evaluation and convene the case conference committee (511 IAC 7-40-5(d)).

Note the word instructional. These are not calendar days. Fifty instructional days signed in October lands somewhere in January. A request signed in late spring can push the meeting into the following school year. That is not a reason to wait — it's a reason not to.

One more thing worth knowing: if the evaluation is for an emotional disability, Indiana requires an FBA as part of it, including an analysis of any interventions already tried (511 IAC 7-41-7(b)(3)). That one is not optional.

If your child has been suspended

This is where parents most often have rights they don't know about.

If your child has been removed for more than 10 school days in a year, or the removals are adding up into a pattern, that can be a change of placement — which triggers a manifestation determination (34 CFR 300.536 and 300.530(e); Indiana's version is 511 IAC 7-44-5).

At that meeting the team decides whether the behavior was caused by, or directly and substantially related to, your child's disability — or was the result of the school failing to implement the IEP.

If the answer is yes, federal law requires the team to conduct an FBA — unless one was already done before the behavior — and implement a behavior intervention plan. If a BIP already exists, they must review it and modify it as needed (34 CFR 300.530(f)).

That is a requirement, not a suggestion. If you walk out of a manifestation meeting where the behavior was found to be a manifestation and nobody mentioned an FBA, something has been skipped.

If the school says no

A refusal is not the end of it. It's a document.

Ask for the written notice explaining the refusal, and read the reason they give. Then you have options: ask for a case conference to discuss it, file a state complaint, request mediation, or file for a due process hearing. Indiana's dispute resolution options are laid out here, and your rights are described in the state's Notice of Procedural Safeguards.

Worth knowing separately: when behavior impedes a child's learning or that of others, the IEP team is required to consider positive behavioral interventions and supports (34 CFR 300.324(a)(2)(i)). "Consider" is a lower bar than "provide" — but it does mean the topic cannot simply be left off the table, and it belongs in the meeting minutes either way.

If you get an FBA back and it isn't good enough

This happens more than it should. The report is three pages, the observation lasted twenty minutes during a subject your child likes, and the conclusion is that the behavior is "attention-seeking."

If you disagree with an evaluation the school conducted, you can request an independent educational evaluation at public expense (34 CFR 300.502). Indiana puts a hard deadline on the school's response: within 10 business days of your request, they must either agree to fund it or file for a due process hearing to defend their own evaluation (511 IAC 7-40-7(c)).

They can ask why you disagree. They cannot require you to explain, and they cannot use the question to delay.

An independent FBA, done properly, is often what shifts a stuck case — because it replaces an opinion about your child with data about your child.

What a good FBA looks like

When the report comes back, look for:

  • Direct observation across settings and times, not one visit
  • Specific, observable behavior definitions — "leaves assigned area without permission," not "is defiant"
  • Antecedent data: what was happening in the minutes before
  • Consequence data: what happened after, including what the adults did
  • A stated hypothesis about function — escape, access, attention, sensory — supported by the data, not asserted
  • Recommendations that name a replacement skill, not just a list of consequences
  • Enough detail that a substitute teacher could follow it

If those things aren't there, say so at the meeting, and ask for it in writing.

One more thing

If you're reading this because things have been getting worse and nobody at the school seems to be asking why — you are asking the right question. "What is this behavior for?" is a better question than "how do we stop it," and it is the one the law actually gives you a way to ask.

Put it in writing. Keep the date. Ask for the FBA as part of an evaluation.

Meet Me Where I Am Indy provides special education advocacy, functional behavioral assessments and behavior intervention plans for Indiana families. If you're preparing a request, or you've gotten an FBA back that doesn't sit right, reach out — I'm glad to look at it with you.

This post is general information for parents, not legal advice. Rules change, and every situation is different — for questions about your child, consult an education attorney or a special education advocate.

Photo: Bill Wegener / Unsplash