Behavior Education Center

Signed in as:

filler@godaddy.com

Account

Using Applied Behavior Analysis

We reduce challenging behaviors and increase skills to ignite your child's natural desire to learn

About Us

Behavior Education Center and Behavior Services of Brevard

Behavior Services of Brevard, Inc has been providing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services in Brevard County since 1997. In 2013 we opened the Behavior Education Center, a Special Education program for individuals who have been struggling to succeed in typical school settings. We serve children and youth, with and without identified disabilities, who often engage in dangerous or challenging behaviors that are significantly impacting their ability to remain in typical education settings. We serve recipients from Preschool to Grade 12.

BEC is a transitional program, meaning, we only accept recipients who have not been successful in day care, school, or other programs. We teach the skills necessary to receive and utilize all types of instruction, reduce the dangerous and challenging behaviors, and return them to a public school or other setting with the skills they need to succeed to the best of their ability. Using Applied Behavior Analysis, we are able to engage recipients in a comprehensive program that makes learning the functional, engaging process it should be!

The focus of BEC is Applied Behavior Analysis; personal care skills, direct instruction, and other activities are provided as age and developmentally appropriate activities that replicate or mimic the conditions under which the child has a history of engaging in dangerous and challenging behavior. In this way, we can address the skill deficits and behaviors that prevent the individual from success in more typical environments.

To the greatest extent possible, enhanced staffing ratios are provided to all recipients as they need it, including frequent individual instruction. However, we do not support 1:1 staffing all day, every day, unless absolutely necessary. A child's future depends the ability to effectively receive instruction in groups, the larger the better. Successful group learning involves many, many skills, and we do our best to teach them to every recipient we serve.

We are a year round program, with Summer, Holiday, and Spring Break "camps." These programs help strengthen and maintain new skills and provide an ongoing structure for those student who need it.

We accept many insurance plans, as well as Medicaid, for Applied Behavior Analysis services. We typically receive supplemental funding through the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES UA), however, FES alone does not cover the cost of the services we provide. We try to keep out-if-pocket expenses as minimal as possible, but insurance may require deductibles and co-pays. Medicaid funding has no out-of-pocket expenses for covered services. Please contact us for more information.

FES-UA Scholarship information

Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied Behavior Analysis is the foundation of our program.

Applied Behavior Analysis is the application of evidence-based, scientific principles to change behavior. Our clinical staff are credentialed by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB.com), the credentialing entity for Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), Board Certified assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBAs), and Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs.)

Behavior Analysis is best provided in the environments in which the challenging behaviors occur. Because the children we serve have a history of challenging behavior that has contributed to performing below their same-age peers, including school suspensions and expulsions, we focus on reducing the behaviors that led to withdrawal from the previous placement, and increase the appropriate skills necessary to advance to, or return to, his or her optimal education placement.

Highly Effective Curricula

Our primary academic curriculum is Engelmann's Direct Instruction, a structured, task-analyzed method of teaching children that ensures the child has mastered each step of the material before advancing to the next skill. DI's foundations are in ABA. DI lessons are similar to other ABA curricula, presenting small increments of new material in a "I say, we say, you say" structure with error correction build into each lesson to minimize ongoing errors.

Our staff are dedicated to maximizing progress for each child. For more information about DI, please check out the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI.org)

Leadership

Leadership at BEC comes from Dr. Karen Wagner PhD, BCBA-D, LMHC (owner and CEO), and Cindy Colletti, M.A., our amazing School Director. They, with our incredible staff, ensure your child is receiving the most appropriate behavior interventions. Our staff are passionate about our student's progress and bring this enthusiasm into their interactions.

Family Empowerment Scholarship

McKay and Gardiner Scholarships are now FES-UA

On May 11, 2021, Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 7045 into law, resulting in several changes to the state's age 3-12th grade scholarship programs, including an extensive expansion of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program.

House Bill 7045 expanded the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program to include two branches of eligibility, the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options(FES EO) and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES UA).

Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options

This branch of the scholarship eligibility is based on family income and provides the option for age 3-12th grade students to attend a participating private school. Families apply through one of the approved scholarship funding organizations (SFO), which are responsible for determining and distributing funding to private schools. FES EO also offers families of eligible students the option to receive a $750 scholarship to provide transportation to a public school different from the school to which the student was assigned.

Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities

Effective July 1, 2022, the McKay Scholarship Program will join the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program under the Unique Abilities category. For information on the transition process, see McKay transition to FES: FAQs.

This branch of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program is designed to offer families of students with disabilities, as young as 3 years of age, access to additional education options. Families may choose to enroll their student in another public school, or they may take the opportunity to receive a personal education savings account (ESA) for their student. With an ESA, parents receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings accounts with restricted, but multiple, uses. An ESA can be used to fund not only items such as private school tuition and fees, but also online learning programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education expenses and other approved customized learning services and materials. Families apply and annually renew for participation in FES UA through one of the approved SFOs, which are responsible for determining eligibility, awarding and distributing funding to eligible student accounts, and approving eligible expenditures.

How do I apply?

If you are interested in applying for either branch of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, please contact one of the two scholarship funding organizations that administers these programs:

A.A.A. Scholarship Foundation- FL, LLC

P.O. Box 15719, Tampa, FL 33684

Phone/Fax: 888-707-2465

info@aaascholarships.org

Step Up For Students

P.O. Box 54367

Jacksonville, FL 32245-4367

877-735-7837

info@stepupforstudents.org