Make access workable
Connect assessment to individualized instruction, communication supports, environmental adjustments, and staff coaching. Inclusion means meaningful participation—not simply being in the room.
Our Approach
Depth of understanding. Support that follows through.
Comprehensive assessment, expertise with complex behavior, and trauma-informed practice belong together. Northwoods brings all three into the work of supporting students and school teams.
Least Restrictive EnvironmentComprehensive assessmentComplex behavior expertiseTrauma-informed practice
A guiding priority / Access & belonging
Least Restrictive Environment
Building the supports that help students learn alongside their peers is a priority—not an afterthought.
Northwoods prioritizes meaningful access to general education and participation in the school community. When behavior creates barriers, the work asks: what does this student need, what can change in the environment, and how can adults be supported to make inclusion work?
Keep decisions individualized
Help teams examine student needs, safety, progress, and how supports are implemented. The priority is the student’s least restrictive appropriate environment, not a predetermined placement.
Northwoods contributes behavioral expertise to the team’s decisions; it does not provide legal advice or make placement determinations.
Explore Behavior & Placement Consultation01 / Understand the student
An FBA should explain the student—not just describe the behavior.
For severe, persistent, or complex needs, a Functional Behavior Assessment should help the team understand why behavior is happening, what is maintaining it, and why previous interventions have not worked.
Northwoods looks beyond isolated incidents to the student’s communication, skills, environment, instruction, routines, and relationships. The student’s experience is part of the assessment—not an afterthought.
A comprehensive picture
Record and data review, educator and caregiver interviews, and direct observation across relevant environments and routines.
Patterns in context
Detailed analysis of antecedents, consequences, environmental conditions, instructional variables, and communication and skill needs.
A review of what came before
Examination of previous interventions, how they were implemented, and the barriers that may have limited their effectiveness.
Questions that inform action
Findings that help the team identify what the student needs, what adults can change, and how progress can be evaluated.
The scope is individualized. Additional functional assessment procedures may be considered when appropriate to the referral, setting, and safety needs.
02 / Navigate complexity
Before the next intervention is simply more, make sure it’s right.
When a team is working from crisis to crisis, it can be difficult to see the larger pattern. Northwoods brings 16 years of experience in Vermont and New Hampshire schools to concerns involving safety, repeated loss of instruction, staff capacity, and access to an appropriate educational setting.
More adult support or a different placement may sometimes be needed. A deeper assessment helps the team clarify what those supports should accomplish and whether existing interventions are addressing the underlying needs.
Recommendations account for real school conditions: classroom demands, staffing, transitions, instruction, and the people responsible for carrying out the plan.
Behavior & Placement Consultation03 / Center dignity
Behavioral science. Human dignity. Both.
Applied behavior analysis is the science Northwoods uses to understand behavior—not a philosophy of compliance.
The BCBA credential is a foundation for the work, paired with trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive support. Assessment and intervention consider safety, predictability, autonomy, regulation, relationships, and meaningful participation.
Safety & predictability
Consider how environments, transitions, and adult responses affect the student’s experience of school.
Autonomy & communication
Create meaningful opportunities for choice and communication rather than treating compliance as the primary measure of success.
Collaboration & relationships
Include educator and caregiver perspectives while attending to the student’s voice, preferences, and experience.
Skills & participation
Focus on useful skills, independence, and access, alongside reducing behavior that interferes with safety and learning.
A trauma-informed approach does not assume every student has a trauma history or that every behavior has the same explanation. Support remains individualized, with attention to the least-restrictive effective intervention.
The assessment is the beginning.
Northwoods connects findings to individualized intervention planning, classroom implementation, staff coaching, data review, and revision. The objective is not a report sitting in a file. It is support that the team can use—and improve as the student’s needs change.
Understand · Plan · Implement · RefineA thoughtful next step
Start with a clearer understanding.
Discuss your school’s needs and whether Northwoods is the right fit for your team.
Request a consultation