Agreed. From everything that I know about procedural approaches, this is the prologue to an ADHD drug recommendation from the school.
If you have a note from the doctor that he does not have ADHD (sounds like you do), they cannot suggest medication (or drug recommendation).
Personally, I think it's kind of stupid, because I don't think that most kids are connivers who have some kind of master plan that they are manipulating us with to get what they want. I think they just can't keep themselves together. Figuring out what skills they might lack and teaching those is useful, but I don't think an FBA really sets up the framework correctly to identify missing skills, instead of blaming the kid for trying to manipulate the adults.
I agree with this. But, agreeing to an FBA does not equal agreeing to a drug recommmendation from the school. Further, schools cannot diagnose ADHD. They can, at most, recommend going to a psychologist/medical professionals to rule in/rule out ADHD. Schools also cannot push medication -- it is against the law. Schools cannot diagnose medical conditions, like ADHD/SPD/Dysgraphia etc
The FBA does this: it measures disruptive behaviors, and quantifies it. The behavior plan is developed after the FBA is done. A lot of it depends on the extent of misbehavior -- for example, a child disrupting another child's work/learning is dealt with a lot differently than a child who does not complete worksheets or follows the classroom routine (example: taking papers out of one's folder ) at a slower pace.
I would definitely ask the principal what they hope to accomplish with the FBA and to ask (in writing through email) for the list of behaviors they are planning to measure before signing anything. If you have other options, such as switching to another school in the same school district, ask for it for next year. I do think that, if the school is recommending gifted testing, you should ask for it in writing first. Get the gifted testing done, have the school provide the level of enrichment needed and see if disruptive behaviors still persist.
Hope this helps !
