Supporting Paraeducators’ Treatment Integrity to Behavior Support Plans Through Implementation Planning

Treatment integrity is a critical component to fully understanding the relationship between implementation of evidence-based interventions and student outcomes. Research shows that school-based implementers require support beyond what is typically provided to consistently implement interventions with adequate levels of treatment integrity, and thus be more likely to achieve desired student outcomes. There are several implementation supports that have shown to be effective at increasing teachers’ levels of treatment integrity. One such support with emerging evidence is Implementation Planning. The present study, which employed a multiple-baseline across participants design, aimed to investigate the effects of providing Implementation Planning on paraeducators’ adherence to existing Behavior Support Plans. Across participant dyads, results revealed increases in adherence to “high” levels of implementation and improved student outcomes (i.e., increased academic engagement, decreased disruptive behavior) following the provision of implementation supports. A discussion of these findings, directions for future research and practice, and limitations to the current study are presented