A Systematic Review of School Personnel’s Involvement in Function-Based Intervention for Students With Extensive Support Needs

Although function-based interventions (FBIs) are effective for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, less is known about FBIs for students with extensive support needs (ESN) and school personnel involvement in FBI development and implementation. As such, we conducted a systematic literature review of 14 single-case research studies involving FBI implementation in K-12 U.S. school settings to address challenging behavior among 18 students with ESN. To identify relevant peer-reviewed articles, dissertations, and theses published between 2006 and March 2025, we searched 10 online databases, reference lists of 10 published reviews, and 19 peer-reviewed journals. Descriptive analyses revealed school personnel involvement varied widely, with school personnel often assuming FBI implementer roles and researchers primarily leading functional behavior assessments. Findings may be limited due to the small number of studies and eligible students with ESN included in the analyses and the limited descriptions of student and study characteristics.