For special ed teachers, case managers & behavior staff

Same behavior. Four plans.

A student rips up the worksheet. It is likely…

Escape.

Attention.

Tangible.

Sensory.

Escape.

The BIP is due Friday and you’re staring at an empty box. I’ve filled in that box a few hundred times. Here’s everything I wish someone had handed me the first time, starting with the part nobody teaches you.

Free starter pack, sent today

The function decision tree plus the ABC and scatterplot data sheets. Printable PDF, 9 pages. No course, no webinar.

↑ takes about 4 seconds, I promise

If you’ve been here

None of this is a you problem.

The template came with no instructionsYour district hands you a form with empty boxes. It quietly assumes you already know what belongs in them.

The samples online skip the thinkingYou can find a finished plan anywhere. What you can’t find is why they landed on that function instead of the other three.

Your behavior specialist covers 11 buildingsShe’s great. She’s also booked until March. The plan is due either way.

The last plan didn’t work and you don’t know whyUsually it’s not the strategies. It’s that the plan was built for what the behavior looks like, not what it’s for.

The part nobody teaches you

Same behavior. Four different plans.

A kid rips up the worksheet and walks out. What you do next depends entirely on which of these is driving it, and getting that call right is most of whether the plan holds.

The sheets show you when it happens. →

EXAMPLE DATA · INCIDENTS BY PERIOD

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

8:30
9:30
10:30
11:30
1:00
2:00

same time, every day

Illustrative sample, not real student data.

EscapeGet out of the task, the setting, or the person. The most common one, and the most often missed.

AttentionAdult or peer. Negative attention still counts, which is why some plans backfire.

TangibleAccess to an item or activity. Easy to confuse with attention if you only watch the consequence.

SensoryAutomatic reinforcement. The one where the usual reinforcement systems do the least.

What you get

Organized by function, not by diagnosis.

The starter pack

Free · sent today

Function decision treeWalk your ABC data to one of the four, with the question that rules each one out.

ABC & scatterplot sheetsPrint and digital, built so a para can fill them out accurately without a training.

Start here page: two weeks to a hypothesis — Start here: two weeks from first data to a hypothesis

ABC quick-code sheet with antecedent and consequence codes — A quick-code ABC sheet a para can fill out in seconds

Two-week scatterplot grid by time of day — A two-week scatterplot to find when it happens

The full kit

Available now

Worked plans for all four functionsFully written, with the reasoning in the margin so you can adapt instead of copy.

Replacement behavior bankMatched to function and effort, so the replacement can actually compete with the behavior.

Progress monitoring packBaseline, goal lines, and the fidelity checklist that keeps the plan defensible at review.

The two-minute one-pagerWhat you hand the gen-ed teacher who has your student for 42 minutes a day.

Individual

$39

One teacher, all of their own students

Get the kit

Team

$149

Up to five staff in one building

Get the team license

School

$299

All staff in one building

Get the school license

District license or printed binders? Request a quote. Purchase orders welcome.

Tools for the rest of the IEP.

IEP Compliance Command Center

Every annual review and reevaluation date, counted down and color-coded, with a 20-minute Monday routine.

$18 caseload · $59 building

Caseload edition Building edition

The Student-Led IEP Kit

Editable student slides, five mini-lessons, and self-advocacy scripts, so students can lead their own meetings.

$16

Get the kit

The IEP Case Manager Bundle

The Command Center, the Student-Led IEP Kit, and the Function First kit together, for 20% less.

$58 ~~$73~~

Get the bundle

Coming soon

Two more tools, built the same way.

Both are in the works. Join the list above and you will hear first, with the launch price.

Launching early 2027

Transition and Work-Based Learning Toolkit

Turn a student’s goals into a plan, a placement, and a handoff.

Transition planning timeline and student interview guide
Postsecondary goal writer with a quality checklist
Work-based learning tracker, skills rating, and employer guide
Agency handoff checklist

Editable Docs, printable PDF, and an Excel tracker

Tell me when it launches

Launching this winter

Observation and Coaching Cycle Kit

A repeatable observe, reflect, and coach routine for leaders who support special education teachers.

The six-step cycle on one page
Look-for tool, coaching planner, and question bank
Growth tracker for every teacher
Staff launch guide

Editable Docs, printable PDF, and an Excel tracker

Tell me when it launches

Prefer paper?

Get it printed and bound, or order for your whole team.

The printed behavior data binder

The decision tree, data sheets, and plan pages, bound together for the clipboard or the IEP table.

Coil-bound, so it lies flat while you write
Printed when you order and shipped to you
Same pages as the PDF, with room for binding

Notify me when it’s ready

Rather print it yourself? The PDF starter pack is free above.

Ordering for a team or school?

Printed binders, or digital licenses for a team, building, or district. Tell me what you need and I’ll reply with a quote. Purchase orders welcome.

Who’s behind this

Cover of the Function First starter pack

Built by a former Director of Special Education. I’ve spent 25 years in the field. I’ve taught everything from first grade to AP English, coordinated IEPs across multiple school sites, and led special education at the network and district level. Along the way I hired and coached the teams who write these plans.

I built Function First because the hardest part of a behavior plan, figuring out what the behavior is for, is the part almost nobody gets trained on. Every page here is something I wish I’d been handed my first year.

Questions, or ideas for the full kit? Email info@functionfrst.com. A real person answers, not a help desk.

Free starter pack

Grab the decision tree and data sheets.

They’re the two pieces you can use on Monday, whether or not you ever buy anything from me. The full kit is still being built, and I’d rather ask you what belongs in it than guess.