Abstract:                 The plight of persons with developmental disabilities was not unlike a “regime of state-mandated segregation…that in its virulence and bigotry rivaled, and indeed paralleled, the worst excesses of Jim Crow.” Thurgood Marshall (1908 – 1993).

As described by Dorsey, Forte, Kirby and Palmeiri (2017), providing educational services to students with special needs, much less being the parent of such a student can be both a daunting and somewhat confusing task.  Fortunately, unlike regular education, special education services in the United States comes with federal legislative guarantees of access to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for all students diagnosed with a developmental disability, that includes a defined dispute resolution process.  The word Appropriate tends to be the most troubling in this mandate.  What one member of the IEP Team considers being appropriate for any given student may not be the opinion of others on the team – most often the parents of the student.  It is only through this dispute resolution process that parents have the ability to formally contest and potentially reverse the decisions of their student’s IEP Team.  What behavior analysts bring to the process is a unique ability to observe and document human behavior, without basing their conclusions on hypothetical constructs (Cronbach and Meehl, 1955) that fail to explain behavior in any practical sense (“explanatory fictions,” Skinner, 1951).  The behavior analyst can apply the standards of best practice in education, combined with a knowledge of evidence based practice, to make recommendations concerning those educational services required for a specific student to receive a FAPE.  The critical element in the process is to remain dispassionate, remembering that, irrespective of whom hires/pays for the evaluation, the student is the one person you represent.

            As a professional who has conducted Independent Educational Evaluations for over 20 years, the following is an interview of Dr. Dorsey conducted by Shannon Penrod as part of the Autism Live television series.

Michael F. Dorsey, Ph.D., LABA, BCBA-D

Director, The Institute for Behavioral Studies

The Van Loan School

Endicott College

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