Essential and often missing pieces of the functional assessment process are cultural perspectives and an assessment of their impact on behavior. This article addresses these missing pieces by providing guidelines for conducting culturally sensitive functional assessments: forming a diverse multidisciplinary team, employing culturally sensitive ways of selecting and defining target behavior, collecting information about students and their behaviors, analyzing data and formulating hypothesis statements, and developing culturally responsive behavioral intervention plans and evaluating their impact on students' cultural perspectives.
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