Behavior Analysts, Inc.

STARS School is a nonpublic school located in Walnut Creek, California.

STARS (Strategic Teaching and Reinforcement Systems) School, originally in Danville, opened in September of 1991. STARS was designed as an educational option that could provide intensive educational services for young children with autism and other developmental disabilities who exhibit language delays.

STARS specializes in providing individualized, data-based instruction, using a curriculum that focuses on the development of language skills. The language instruction is based on an analysis of the students' existing verbal behavior. Positive behavioral interventions are designed to capture the students' existing motivation so there is an immediate benefit for using their skills both at home and at school. The primary objective of the program is to teach skills that will allow the students to successfully transition into a less restrictive educational environment where they will continue to acquire important skills. Therefore, the emphasis of the program is to develop language and other educational skills that will allow the students to readily acquire a variety of new skills without the need for intensive instruction (i.e., the student must learn the skills necessary to learn from their everyday experiences in addition to the specialized educational teaching experiences).

STARS serves 10 students and maintains a ratio of one teacher/instructional assistant for every two students. Students range from three to twelve years of age. The classrooms are designed to provide five hours per day of instruction that is provided in 1:2 sessions, small groups, and a final, large group activity daily. To enhance generalization of student skills, an area of emphasis is natural environment instruction, in which students’ target skills are taught in a variety of settings in the natural environment with naturally-occurring stimuli as instructional stimuli. The foundation of STARS’ behavior management system is the use of differential reinforcement procedures, which provide positive behavioral support. Each student's instruction is based upon the learner's objectives as specified in their Individualized Educational Program. A highly-structured schedule of daily activities is developed for each individual student. The local school district has the ability to provide additional Designated Instruction and Services (DIS) as specified in the students' IEP (e.g., adaptive physical education, speech and language therapy).

STARS has a team of dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the learning opportunities for children. Our instructional staff maintains high-level qualifications with continual opportunities to expand and increase their teaching skills through in-service trainings and professional development. Our team of instructors has received extensive training in behavioral instructional methodology including reinforcement techniques, shaping of behavior, discrete trial teaching, verbal behavior instruction, correction procedures, interspersal techniques, and data-collection methods. This level of staff training provides our students with the consistency of our teaching methodology throughout the school day by a variety of individuals with continuous expectations for responding to instruction. Students work with several instructional staff members on a daily basis, which provides important generalization of skills across the various instructors. Parents are encouraged to consult with our classroom teachers to assist with the generalization of acquired skills to the home environment.

The program is designed to require a high rate of responding by the students throughout their school day while maintaining the students' motivation to participate in the educational tasks by providing a 4:1 ratio of attention contingent on appropriate behavior to attention contingent on inappropriate behavior. Data are collected to ensure that the students are acquiring the skills being taught in the teaching sessions.

Clinical oversight at STARS is provided by Dr. Pamela Osnes, BCBA, Director of Educational Services, and Joel Vidovic, M.A., BCBA, Coordinator and Behavior Specialist. Instructional staff are provided with direct feedback regarding their teaching skills in relation to the established educational procedures for the students. Their performance is monitored regularly by a direct observation system, SCOOP (Systematic Carousel Observation of Performance), which is criterion-based and has been empirically validated. Program reviews and adjustment of teaching strategies are a major component of the program.