Autism Specialist/BCBA (3 Positions)

Holyoke Public Schools•Holyoke, MA

About The Position

The primary role of the Autism Specialist/BCBA is to support the development, implementation, and refinement of programmatic and individual social and behavioral supports, using strategies based on principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). The Autism Specialist/BCBA will function in a consultative role, whose expertise will increase the capacity of all team members to effectively provide least restrictive behaviorally-based supports to students and related professional development and direct training to staff throughout each school day. The following outline of the role and responsibilities is intended to provide a broad overview, but is subject to change according to the needs of the school district, as required by the Director of Intensive Services, Chief of Pupil Services, and Receiver/Superintendent of Schools. Adheres to all ethical guidelines, as outlined by the BACB. Adheres to all state and district designed special education processes and procedures.

Requirements

Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) & State Licensed Behavior Analysts (LABA)
Experience writing IEP goals and objectives
Experience with staff training
Working knowledge of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
Effective communication skills with families and community stakeholders
Citizenship, residency in United States required

Nice To Haves

BACB Supervision certification preferred
Experience working in an urban setting preferred
Bilingual Preferred
Master degree preferred
Teaching license preferred, but not required

Responsibilities

Creates & implements staff training and development around principles of ABA and related school-based topics during building based and district wide professional development opportunities throughout the school year, as directed by Director of Intensive Services and building principal.
Direct supervison of assigned RBT staff
Conducts assessments including, but not limited to: Functional Behavioral Assessment/Analysis (FBA/FA), adaptive assessments (ie. Vineland, ABAS-3), social/language/skills-based assessments (ie. ABLLS-R, VB-MAPP, AFLS), home visits, and other related assessments necessary to analyze measurable information to formulate team recommendations and action planning toward overcoming learning barriers and meeting IEP goals and objectives
Collaborates with educational teams to create Behavior Support Plans (BSP) and other behaviorally based student support interventions, that are feasible for implementation across all educational settings.
Creates and implements structured program/individual staff training on therapeutic staff design/implementation of BSPs and other individualized recommended strategies to ensure: high fidelity of implementation, progress monitoring, and student success and independence.
Models applied behavior analytic intervention strategies and data collection techniques for direct service providers, classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, and other school-based stakeholders
Monitors data on a scheduled basis, identifies change timelines, shares action steps to staff, and provides real time feedback to staff following observations.
Directly assists and supports teams with crisis/safety situations where staff require additional direct support and/or modeling.
Supports crisis situations, using least aversive procedures, and works under the guidance of building administration regarding action planning.
Provides program/individual staff consultation on development/ implementation of Discrete Trials Training programs and other ABA-based teaching methodologies to promote student learning success.
Provides staff consultation on assessment and implementation of social skills instruction.
Facilitates action and solution based team consultation meetings with classroom teachers/related service providers/paraprofessional staff, as needed by IEP team members and other stakeholders.
Attends all required IEP meetings, when role is assigned to IEP or an evaluation has been requested/completed.
Attends all additionally requested meetings with IEP teams, families, and/or community stakeholders
Fulfills all written IEP responsibilities, including but not limited to: student strengths and key evaluation summaries, accomodations, methodologies, service delivery grid.
Provides consultation to the team on social/behavioral goals/objectives, as needed.
Provides consultation to families and community stakeholders, as requested.
Schedules and documents provision of services to students, as outlined in individual IEPs
Assists in maintaining & updating internal and external Shared Resources (ie. internal G-drive resources, external HPS Autism Resource Webpage)
Serves as a member of Child Study Teams (CST), as requested by principal and/or Director of Intensive Services.
Performs other duties as requested by the building principal, the Coordinator of Special Education, or the Director of Pupil Services, within the scope of job description.