# Still Left Behind: How Behavior Analysts Can Improve Children’s Access, Equity, and Inclusion to Their Entitled Education

## TL;DR

This paper explores how behavior analysts can help ensure all children have equal access to education by addressing ongoing issues of exclusion.

## Contribution

The paper provides a historical overview and actionable advocacy strategies for behavior analysts to combat school exclusion.

## Key findings

- School exclusion persists despite legal and educational advancements.
- Behavior analysts can play a key role in improving access and inclusion.
- Advocacy efforts are urgently needed to address systemic exclusion.

## Abstract

In 1968, a group of professionals commissioned a task force to study the issue of children being excluded from school in the city of Boston, MA (Task Force on Children Out of School, 1970). What they found shocked them: thousands of children were systematically excluded from attending school or accessing meaningful instruction based on cultural, physical, and mental and behavioral differences. However, despite the advancement of legal protections and improved methods to educate even the most complex students, many coming from behavior analysis, children across the country still face school exclusion for essentially the same reasons. Coordinated advocacy is needed urgently to address this issue. This article discusses the history of school exclusion, the advancements that should allow us to prevent it, and a description of advocacy efforts behavior analysts should engage in to prevent school exclusion from occurring.