If you’re a school administrator looking for a BCS to serve your related services program, please click here to discover more about our Behavioral Health department!

Whenever challenging and problematic behaviors get in the way of students accessing their education or threaten their social interactions with peers, teachers, and other school staff, related services teams need a Licensed Behavior Specialist (or Behavior Specialist Consultant, BSC).

At Pediatric Therapeutic Services (PTS), we’re looking for qualified BSCs who have substantial academic and practical training in psychology or other relevant disciplines (such as occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and nursing.

Though each state’s Board of Medicine licensure requirements may vary, if you’ve earned your master’s degree or higher in an approved area of study from an accredited college or university and have completed 90 hours of evidence-based coursework, we’d love to talk with you about joining our team!

What Does a School-Based Licensed Behavior Specialist (BSC) Do?

A licensed behavior specialist’s duties in an educational setting include:

• Observing and evaluating students’ challenging or disruptive behaviors, in both general and special education.

• Making plans for students’ improved functioning.

• Helping students implement plans for replacing targeted behaviors.

• Training teachers, aides, and support staff in best practices when working with students who present challenging behaviors, and partnering with them in instructing these students.

• Providing preventative classroom strategies for groups and individuals which maximize learning and reduce maladaptive behaviors.

• Consulting with school personnel and students’ families.

• Supervising other therapeutic practitioners, as needed and appropriate.

The BSC’s Role in the Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) 

The Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) serves as the foundation for a school-based BSC’s daily work.

You understand behaviors are not random. They serve a purpose. As a licensed behavior specialist, your job is to help teachers, administrators, and family appreciate this reality, and lead them in discovering why a student acts in challenging or disruptive ways.

Once the team understands the needs a student’s current behaviors meet, it can, following your lead, formulate a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) to introduce and reinforce more desirable behaviors.

This process communicates to the student, “I don’t know why you have been behaving in that extraordinary manner, but I will take some time to find out why and incorporate those factors into all attempts to change your behavior,” as Gregory Hanley wrote in the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice.

Behavior Specialist Practice in Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

PTS also supports the licensed behavior specialist’s role in designing and supporting a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework appropriate for K-12 students.

Academic and behavioral concerns often accompany each other. “A student who can’t understand what’s going on in the classroom is more likely to act out,” Christina Samuels writes in Education Week, “and a student who is grappling with behavior problems is not going to be able to focus on academics.”

Your work in such situations is crucial! Using Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), you can not only work directly with students themselves but also equip teachers, administrators, and school building staff with specific methods for introducing and reinforcing desired behaviors.

In this way, you’ll make a vital contribution to positive school cultures in which all students—not just those on caseload—can succeed, academically and socially.

As a PTS Behavior Specialist, You’ll Help Schools Better Serve Students

If you want to pursue a career as a school-based Licensed Behavior Specialist, consider working with PTS. We’re recognized leaders in delivering innovative interventions as well as in fostering clinicians’ professional growth.

For example, one area in which we’re helping move the field forward is in trauma-sensitive therapy. As awareness of students’ struggles with adverse childhood experiences grows, so do the therapeutic community’s efforts to treat them in ways that promote healing. You can read about how your work can address the need in our free, downloadable eBook, Trauma-Informed Care: Key Principles and Best Practices for Therapists.

PTS can place you in the right program where you can do the most good for the most students. Contact us and apply today!