RCS creates new Registered Behavior Technician positions

Rutherford County Schools has created a new position category to recruit and retain special education staffers who have certification in student behavior support.

Registered Behavior Technicians, as the position is known, have specialized expertise which allows them to intervene with students who may have elevated behaviors — referred to as Tier 3.

“RBT’s give the teachers and everyone working with that student, more tools on how to actually de-escalate a situation,” said Nicole Kanew, who works with multi-tiered systems of support in the RCS special education department. “Then (the RBT) is not only impacting that student, but every student in the classroom. Typically, if the one student has a (high tiered) behavior, not just there, but possibly the hallway or the school, education is impacted. So, it mitigates that.”

Previously, Behavior Education Assistants who trained to receive their RBT certifications often left employment with RCS for better pay elsewhere. The RBT certification is a valuable one, explained Kate Kasuboski, RCS Special Education coordinator.

“In order to stay competitive with the outside pay for an RBT, we decided to create a position if they (Behavior EA’s) earned their certification or have their certification,” Kasuboski said.

This position doesn’t eliminate the pathway offered to current Behavior EA’s. For new hires, there is a clear career advancement – one with “very competitive” pay, Kanew said.

“We still have positions for those that don’t yet have their RBT certification, but if they are interested in that line of work — they could be hired in as a behavior EA. But if you already have your certification, we recognize that’s valuable, and that there’s a market for that. So we want to pay them competitively.”

RCS is now hiring Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT’s) to work with students and teachers across the network.

“There’s a science and an art to helping students learn new behaviors,” Kasuboski said.

The RBT’s may work in one school or multiple schools, Kanew said.

“RBT’s work alongside our behavior specialists and do a lot more on the ground work in terms of working directly with students,” Kanew said.

RBT’s aren’t just assisting students. They’re showing teachers how to respond to future behaviors which they may not be trained to handle.

“Sometimes, with good intention, we as educators make (behaviors) worse. We feed into that behavior or whatever’s happening, and we might reinforce it.” Kasuboski explained. “If a child is trying to escape using a behavior, we might let them get out of it, because we don’t want to fight that battle.”

For more information on the Behavior EA position, or to view the RBT job postings – click HERE.