Ep. 14: Life as a School Based BCBA with Jen Stracquadanio

Today we have special guest Jen Stracquadanio sharing three helpful tips for school based BCBAs! These insights are invaluable for new BCBAs but also super practical and relatable for any BCBA working in any setting!

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Transcript

Jen Stracquadanio: when you put a strategy in place, whether it's simple or, more advanced, if that's what's required,checking and be like, how's it going? Like, how's everything going? How is this working? and not waiting for them to come to you to say, this is not working.

Welcome to the Misfit Behaviorists Podcast. Join your hosts, Audra Jensen and Caitlin Beltran, here to bring you evidence based strategies with a student centered focus. Let's get started. 

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Audra Jensen: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Misfits. We are really excited to have another guest today. Today we are going to be talking about insights into being a public school BCBA. But before we start, don't forget to go join our Facebook groups, get all of our freebies, go check us out on YouTube at the Misfit Behaviorists and you get to see all the content and you'll get to see this pretty new face that's joining us today if you're over on YouTube today.

Caitlin Beltran: Hi, so welcome Jen. Today we have Jen Stracodonio and she is going to be talking to us about three things that she wishes she knew before she started her job as a public school based BCBA. So Jen, before we get into all that, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Jen Stracquadanio: Sure. So I got into the field by accident, during my senior year at Rutgers when I signed up for a field work experience at what I thought was the Douglas Daycare, the DDC, and ended up walking into the Douglas Developmental Disability Center. So the DDDC, a school for children with autism.

So I definitely walked in and realized immediately that this is not what I expected, but fell in love with the environment and the people and the field. And I remember meeting with, the advisor. At the end, I was like, how do I do this? Like, how do I get here? How do I get involved? And they guided me through that.

So then I went to grad school at Rutgers. I ended up working at the DDDC for years prior to making the switch to public school,about eight years ago now. so I always say it's the best mistake I ever made was signing up for the wrong field work class because, it just was something I fell into when I wasn't expecting, to be in this field at all.

Audra Jensen: How did you feel when you walked in that first day?

Jen Stracquadanio: I was like shocked. I was definitely shocked. And I remember walking in and it was just overwhelming, right? Because there's a lot of students, there's a lot of staff, because most of the students had a one to one ratio. So a lot of adults, students communicating with AAC, which I was familiar with, because my mom is a special ed teacher and works with students,who communicate with, AAC as well.

So I recognized it immediately as oh, this doesn't seem like something that might seem like a three year old, a pre K 3, Class at a daycare. But yeah, it was a lot going on. I remember going back to my roommates and telling them stories and I was like, it is just incredible what everyone's doing here.

And also just like a lot. I said, I don't know how everyone does this every day. But then sure enough, a couple of years later, I was in there doing it as well.

Audra Jensen: Doing it every day.

Jen Stracquadanio: Every day.

Caitlin Beltran: doing it every day. I can attest to that. I did it every day with Jen for a long time.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yes, exactly. For years. which is good. And, I think that the setting like that definitely prepares you, in some ways moving forward to, other places that you could work with students. But it definitely is an intense setting. That's for sure.

Caitlin Beltran: What is your day to day role as a public school BCBA right now look like?

Jen Stracquadanio: So I am one of four district BCBAs, which I know is pretty fortunate given that we have a lot of support in our district. so I'm stationed at one elementary school currently. We do have an EBA program in our district, ages pre K 3 through grade 8. So I am with the 1st grade to the 8th graders right now.

So that's 3 of our 5 classes. and then I provide consultation to, the students within our elementary school. So I'm basically housed at the one building, oversee the two classrooms there, that are the ABA classrooms as well.

Caitlin Beltran: Wow, that's awesome that you get to see them move through each year for so long.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, for a while I was the only one so I did pre K through 8th grade. So it is nice to be able to focus in, on the 2 classrooms and be in that building. More specifically for the consultation cases. I think, with the, our ABA classrooms, the teachers and I collaborate regularly, whereas, the consultation cases, if you're not in a building 1 day and there's a challenging behavior or,parent is coming with concerns, you're playing catch up always.

So it is I'm just lucky now that I'm there every day. So the parents sending an email or a teacher has a concern. I've seen it. We were there. I'm there to work through it with them, which definitely makes it easier to work with the staff there. 

Caitlin Beltran: and I had like the same background going from that private school setting to public school and I mean culture shock was huge. The settings were so different. So I guess speaking to that, what are some practical tips that you feel like when you started in this public school role, you wish you had known or someone had shared with you?

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, so I think hindsight's 2020 there, I wish there was a lot of things I knew. a big one is that, pairing and building that rapport not only works with our students that we work with, but also the educators and the teachers that we're supporting. no, I think I came in with, guns ablaze and ready to be like, here are the best strategies.

This is what we can do. This is going to work and I'm new and they're like, who is this lady coming in, telling me what to do? This is my classroom. I've been teaching for X amount of years. And who are you to tell me that, I need to change what I'm doing. and it took me a while, I will say, to realize that, going in, listening to the concerns, talking about how their weekend was, going in, not just when there's a challenge, but checking in, just being hey, I was passing by, like, how's everything going?

And definitely building that relationship. So when I do go in, or they come with a concern, and I tell them something that's difficult to hear, or, I'm telling them to ignore behavior that's disrupting their class, they have a little bit more buy in to what I'm saying. And also goes for modeling too, right? Like showing them what it looks like, instead of just telling them.

Audra Jensen: I love that idea of going in when there's not an issue to build that relationship with them is so important. So valued by the teachers.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, even just being in the hallway for like arrival and dismissal, like showing your face that you're there, I have found to be helpful. Again, it's easier now that I'm in one building again, because I think sometimes you're like running back and forth and you're just running from crisis to crisis.

But I think if you have that opportunity or even carve out some time to do that, In the beginning, I was sending emails like, Hey, how's everything going? And I found that going in person was a very long way rather than just like checking in by email. So I definitely would suggest kind of making that a priority.

Caitlin Beltran: I think that's so true. And just like you said, building that trust, because I think, the setting that you and I came from was more of a clinical setting. And so We were used to staff kind of coming in, telling us what to do. Okay. This is your role. This is my role. And the public school district is just, there's so many layers to it.

There's so many different types of support that we weren't aware of. And so that was definitely a culture shock for me as well. And I think I spoke in another episode about like underestimating the same thing that Jen's talking about, just building those relationships and like realizing that, like I had to earn trust, even though I had been doing this for a long time, even though I had done it in other settings.

Like you said, you're still the new kid on the block. And so you still have to prove yourself for lack of better words.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, I agree with that completely.

Caitlin Beltran: What's another one? I know you shared 3 so that pairing with not only with students, but with staff.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, and then, perspective taking. So I think that, like you're saying, coming from a clinical background, it is, we're often a little jaded, right? So we've seen very extreme behaviors. We've dealt with, some pretty extreme crisis situations. And then sometimes you're going into a public school and what is a concern for a teacher might not be something that would register on our kind of, concern meter in terms of, something that we need to address immediately or at this time.

And so I think it took me a little bit to say, okay. If someone's coming to me with this concern, it's obviously affecting their ability to do their job and the ability for the students in their classroom to learn. And I need to kind of, like take a seat and listen to what they're saying, whether or not I think the pencil tapping or, a clicking of a noise is like a big deal,I want to make sure that their concerns are valid. They are heard, and make sure that, I'm looking at it from their perspective and not just saying, oh, it doesn't seem like it would be that interfering.

Caitlin Beltran: I think that's huge. Like that validation. I mean, it kind of goes along with number 1, but like perspective taking seeing it from there, putting yourself in their shoes and also validating yeah, this probably is really frustrating, even though to you or me, if we're looking at the top five, behavior cases or whatever you want to call it in our school right now, maybe this isn't even on the radar, but in your classroom, it's very disruptive.

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, and I think that is, again, with building that relationship to not brushing those concerns off, right? Listening to them, whether or not it's something we're going to address at this moment or something that we know we can address in a couple weeks and see how it goes for whatever reason.

But I think just, spending that time listening and making sure that they feel heard, and then taking those next steps forward.

Caitlin Beltran: Yeah, I 100 percent identify with that because I feel like maybe when I first started, I was more inclined to be like, okay, but I have all this other stuff to do. So I'm going to push that 1 off and then it becomes week 2 and week 3 and, in that moment, was it the end all be all? No. But what about next year?

That same relationship with that same teacher now? Maybe she has a real heavy hitter. And she doesn't have that trust in me. And also if I had taken just a little bit of time, maybe I could have offered some really simple solution that she could have worked with or he, and then we could have not only helped with that child, but also, like you said, built that relationship for the future too.Yeah, exactly. What is your final tip for newly minted public school BCBAs?

Jen Stracquadanio: My final tip, and maybe 1 of the most important is that simple is better. So I think, maybe it was our clinical background. But, I think sometimes what is an ideal treatment or strategy or behavior plan might not be feasible for the staff in the classroom to run for whatever reason.

So sometimes, there's concerns about behaviors and the student might not have a one to one power professional. So we're asking a teacher of a classroom of 23 kids to not only teach their lessons and manage all the students in the classroom, but also collect data for us or also,implement strategies that we would expect a one to one power to do.

So I think sometimes taking a step back and assessing what strategies we can put in that will be implemented. So sometimes looking at, you know, the integrity of the treatment versus the, Efficacy like what we think would be the most effective in that case might be beneficial.

So I definitely have looked to be like, let's start really simple. And then if we need to, we will add those strategies in, but give the staffs time to acclimate and just see what the minimal is that we need to support the students. And not in a bad way, right? The minimal to get the reduction. So.

Audra Jensen: I think that's probably the number one complaint that I've heard from teachers who have clinical BCBAs come in, which does happen, you know, to come in and try to support is the clinical perspective is very different. And they come in with all of these strategies and things that they want to do for their one student.

And the teacher is not in a place with 30 students to be able to implement that. And so they always feel that kind of, that burden of the clinical BCBA coming in and telling them everything they're doing wrong. And they're like, I'm here every day with my 30 kids. I know how this, the classroom works and what I'm capable of doing and what the other students are capable of doing to support the student.

And so that's probably the biggest complaint I hear from the school setting from just, or, clinicals coming in. So that's a great idea to making sure that we're keeping it simple for those that can implement the strategies.

Caitlin Beltran: For sure. And I remember we had a supervisor at Douglas and he would always say You could have the best behavior plan in the world, but like, if no one's going to run it. What are you going to do? Frame it on your wall. Just pat yourself on the back. Like it's not going anywhere.But I think too, that speaks, it almost ties all three of yours together because if you're putting yourself in their shoes and you're pairing with them, then you're going to want to develop a plan that has common ground.

Jen Stracquadanio: And you're not just coming in and saying like, well, I've never been in your classroom and your problem is no big deal, but try this. And it goes all together, right? making sure those check ins are there. So even when you put a strategy in place, whether it's simple or, more advanced, if that's what's required,checking and be like, how's it going? Like, how's everything going? How is this working? and not waiting for them to come to you to say, this is not working.

Because I think that sometimes, Staff are waiting for, that meeting to come say, and this isn't going the way it's supposed to. And it's no, if I'm going in antecedently and being like, how's it going? How's this going? How's this component? Did we do this? And not in any accusatory way, but keeping that dialogue open is also good because then we're just, on top of it and on the same page and collaboratively working.

Caitlin Beltran: Yeah, and it saves yourself from, like you said, getting blindsided at the meeting when the teacher couldn't find you earlier to tell you it's totally not working. And at least you can save face and say, okay, we've had that talk. Right. Sure. I wanted to talk to you about mom's management behavior. Can you speak to us about that?

Jen Stracquadanio: Yeah, sure. My co-founder, Megan Sanziano and I, started a company and we are working to provide PD to school districts and consultation in terms of, getting started with the ABA program,how programs are written. We provide a lot of PD to our district alone, so now we're trying to expand that to newer programs within districts, as well, and also parent training.

So we have this whole library of parent training, that we've done throughout the years. And now we're reaching out to kind of those school districts as well when, if there is one BCBA for an entire district, that's a lot to manage in terms of providing professional development for different areas and staff.

So we're reaching out to see, if those areas are needed for anyone as well.

Caitlin Beltran: Awesome. That is awesome. Where can people find you? Is that on Instagram?

Jen Stracquadanio: @momsmanagingbehavior on Instagram and our website is momsmanagingbehavior.com.

Caitlin Beltran: Awesome. And then do you offer remote trainings?

Jen Stracquadanio: Yes. So remote trainings, right now our PD summer offer, our summer PD offerings are up as well. and then, in the fall we'll come up with a new schedule as well. Yeah.

Caitlin Beltran: needed too.

Jen Stracquadanio: We find that area is especially parents and especially this kind of all started after, 2020, the pandemic, when we started to talk with parents and we're providing remote parent training and realized how great that need is in the home and then just continued from there.

Caitlin Beltran: So nice.

All right. awesome. Thank you for joining us, Jen.

Jen Stracquadanio: Thank you for having me guys. This was great.

Alright, thanks for joining us this week. Don't forget to go join the Facebook group and find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And join us next week. I believe we are talking about modifying content in general education classrooms, which was a request from one of our viewers and listeners, so that will be a really good one.

Audra Jensen: So follow us and we will see you next week. Thanks everybody.

Caitlin Beltran: Bye. 

Thanks for listening to the Misfit Behaviorists. And be sure to tune in next week for more tips and tricks. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.