The sole reason for the existence of our profession is the student
Brookfield Public Schools
“Create Your Tomorrow”
To: Board of Education
From: Dr. John W. Barile
Re: Formal Request to Provide In-District ABA Services
Date: September 2, 2020
Background: For the past three years the Brookfield Public Schools has been striving to provide its own in district
services for behavioral support. At the same time, we have been slowly moving away from contracted services with
Institute of Professional Practices Inc. (IPPI). I have informed the BOE Finance Subcommittee on August 12th that
it is necessary to hire our own district employee ABA para-educators to provide consistent, high quality services to
our most vulnerable students. Additionally, the central office team met with the Personnel & Negotiations
Subcommittee on August 27
th
to review the plan. At this time, we have terminated the existing contracted ABA
services with IPPI regarding provision of special education behavioral support for our students. In order to ensure
provision of services for the 20-21 school year I made the executive decision to post and begin the hiring process of
the necessary ABA para-educators in Brookfield. It is important to note that Brookfield still contracts with our
partners at Ed Advance who will continue to provide training for our Brookfield ABA para-educators and provide
support for student behavioral services. It is a part of our overall capacity building plan to provide ABA/BCBA
services for our students with Brookfield employees.
Request: In place of the existing IPPI services, which consists of three ABA para-educators and one certified
BCBA, I request that we hire three ABA para-educators as Brookfield Public school employees and .5 FTE
contracted BCBA services through Ed Advance.
Rationale/Concerns with Existing Services: Moving forward, IPPI has made the decision that they will not
provide training to the existing Brookfield employed ABA para-educators for the 2020-2021 school year. This
means that the IPPI certified BCBA that we contract for services will not provide necessary training to Brookfield
Public Schools ABA para-educators, while only providing training to those para-educators employed by IPPI. The
lack of BCBA provided training to our ABA para-educators will negatively impact staff capacity in the program to
support the behavioral learning for our students. The IPPI BCBA has always worked with the ABA para-educators
employed by the school district. This change is not acceptable for our district.
IPPI staff (BCBA and ABA para-educators) have recently been ever-changing, which is the antithesis of what our
children need. Our students need consistency. The inconsistency of the IPPI team members also has impacted the
Brookfield lead special education teacher. She had to make daily adjustments to student programming needs and
para-educator schedules as the IPPI para-educators were not regularly assigned. Furthermore, on occasion, the
program is short-staffed due to IPPI not sending staff to the school.
Finally, IPPI has always driven the van to and from vocational programs. This year, IPPI decided that they will no
longer drive the vans and often left us filling the driver role with our own para-educators, leaving us short-staffed.
We can meet the needs of our most vulnerable students by providing consistent, high quality behavioral support
with the hiring of Brookfield Public School educators.
Please turn to page 2
The sole reason for the existence of our profession is the student
Budget Comparison:
Cost of recently terminated IPPI Services - $277,500
1 - BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst)
3 - ABA para-educator (Applied Behavior Analyst)
Cost of hiring district ABA para-educator employees/ Salary - $105,000, Benefits Worst Case Risk - $45,900
3 - ABA para-educator (Applied Behavior Analyst)
Cost of Ed Advance Additional Services
.5 FTE Contracted BCBA $56,000
Minimum Budget Savings = $70,600
