My wife, who is also a special education teacher, and I have spent the last couple of years building and refining a tool for one very specific moment: when a BCBA is deciding whether to recommend full-time ABA, and what that will mean for a child's access to school.
It is called the ABA Educational Impact Analysis. It is free, and it does not store client information. It is not an assessment in the formal sense. It is a risk-benefit tool that helps you slow down and look at the whole picture before you make a recommendation, and gives you language for the conversation with parents.
What the tool is for
Deciding whether full-time ABA is clinically and ethically appropriate
Separating treatment intensity from service location, because 30 hours of ABA does not have to be 30 hours in one setting
Identifying other services a child could benefit from, like school, speech, OT, or PT, so ABA is not treated as the answer to everything
Creating a transparent, data-based conversation with the family and school team about risks, benefits, and long-term effects
Reducing school participation is not automatically wrong, and neither is reducing intensive ABA. The goal is informed consent.
Step 1: Medical necessity
Be careful with preset minimums, like "Level 1 gets nine hours, Level 2 gets fifteen, Level 3 gets thirty," or "daytime clients need thirty hours because it keeps our caseloads manageable." Use the assessment to decide.
The tool asks:
Does this child actually require medically necessary ABA at a full-time intensity? (I think of full-time as roughly 80 percent of a school week. At that level, school participation becomes minimal, which may be fine as a short transition plan, but is hard to justify as a long-term one.)
Can any hours be delivered after school, or as a mix of daytime and evening?
How large are the skill deficits compared to same-age peers? Are there foundational skills that must be in place before school becomes meaningful, or just a few behavioral cusps?
How does the child acquire new skills? If they only learn with one-to-one, hand-over-hand teaching, school may be a poor fit. Do they need that, or is it simply what the funding source pays for?
Do skills generalize from structured teaching to natural settings?
Does the learning profile call for discrete trial training and desk work, or can it be supported through naturalistic embedded instruction?
What would need to be true for school to be beneficial at this child's current skill level, and how are we programming toward that?
That last question matters most to me. Instead of only teaching whatever the assessment says is missing, I would rather ask what this child needs to be able to do at the end of the year and plan backward from there.
Step 2: Behavioral needs
Is there very high severity behavior causing significant harm, such as long periods of restraint, protective equipment, or seclusion? That may call for urgent intervention outside the school, and possibly outside a standard clinic.
How often does the behavior happen? A severe behavior that happens once a month is a different decision than one that happens daily.
Are there real safety concerns for the child or others?
Those are red flags that something has to change. The same concerns can exist in a clinic too, so look at your own resources as well.
Step 3: School supports and capacity
This is the section private providers most often skip.
Have you reviewed the IEP or 504 and the behavior plan, and does the data match what school staff report?
Was an FBA actually done, and does the BIP match the function?
Has the school used evidence-based interventions with documented fidelity? If not, what is in the way: training, staffing, or systems?
What is the realistic ceiling of what this school can provide, given staffing ratios, environment, and training?
Have academic gaps from full-time ABA been discussed with the family?
If you do not fully understand what a school can offer, ask. Contact the district about observing or talking with teachers. It can be hit or miss, but the information is worth it.
Step 4: Family capacity and context
Does the family support the proposed model?
Have negative school experiences pushed them toward ABA as a permanent school replacement? I have seen families who plan to "never go back," and then the discharge plan becomes parents doing very little at home.
Can the family handle scheduling disruptions? ABA is not daycare, and sessions get canceled.
Can they sustain it financially, for example if they hit their out-of-pocket maximum early in the year?
Are they willing to work toward the least support necessary over time?
Step 5: Developmental milestones
The cost of missing school is different at different points, so the tool reminds you where the child is:
Early elementary: learning to read and early math. Long-term literacy gaps are very hard to fix later.
Middle elementary: reading to learn, higher-level thinking.
Middle school: abstract thinking, pre-algebra, peer social identity.
High school: credits, graduation requirements, or services through age 22, and planning for work and independent living.
Transition years: kindergarten to elementary, elementary to middle, middle to high school are hard on everyone.
Step 6: Final considerations and the recommendation
The last section asks whether school-based supports have been tried and documented as insufficient, whether less restrictive ABA service models have been considered, and whether full-time ABA is the most clinically appropriate option right now. Then the tool compares your answers to the recommendation you entered, flags tensions or gaps, offers suggested next steps, and lets you set a date to review it again, for example at the next authorization.
For me, severe behavior, serious safety concerns at school, large skill deficits with slow acquisition, and a school that cannot meet the need move the needle toward full-time ABA. A school that can meet the need, family sustainability barriers, a naturalistic learning profile, or part-time intensity being enough move it the other way. I still treat it as a conversation, not a formula.
A few practical notes
The tool does not save your data. If you refresh the page, it is gone, so use the print option to save a PDF.
It does not replace clinical judgment.
We are still improving it. If you find a typo or have feedback, please email us.
If you remember one thing: use the analysis to slow down, look at the whole picture, and get to informed consent.
Try the ABA Educational Impact Analysis. If you want a second set of eyes on your service model, learn about Clinical and Agency Consulting. I offer a free 15-minute consultation if you want to talk it through.
Casey Gressmen, MBA, MEd, BCBA, LBA, is a licensed special education teacher and board certified behavior analyst and the founder of Phoenix Rising Behavior and Academic Consulting.
