ABA on Tap is proud to sit down with Lupe Castañeda (Part 1 of 2):

If you’ve ever walked into a school confident in your assessment, your data, and your “best practice” plan, and still watched it fall apart by week two, you’re not alone. Mike and Dan sit down with Lupe Castaneda, a longtime school-based BCBA and consultant, to talk about what actually makes ABA in schools work, and what quietly makes it fail even when everyone has good intentions.

We start with Lupe’s path into the field, from early exposure to children with disabilities to adapted physical education, autism support, and becoming one of the earliest full-time BCBAs employed by a Texas school district. Along the way, he shares the moments that reshaped his practice, including a hard lesson about making changes without family input and a blunt IEP meeting reminder that experience means nothing if you cannot explain what you will do for this specific child.

From there, we dig into the practical heart of school-based behavior support: family-centered programming, meaningful long-term goals, parent education, and the legal and team-driven reality of the IEP process. We also break down two essentials for any behavior intervention plan or functional behavior assessment in a school setting: collaboration and contextual fit. A plan is only “evidence-based” if it can be implemented by real educators in real classrooms with real constraints, and if it respects the priorities of the student and family.

This is Part 1 of our conversation with Lupe. Subscribe so you don’t miss Part 2, and if this resonates, share it with a BCBA, teacher, or parent navigating school services. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve seen when ABA meets the classroom?

Tune in, drink up and ALWAYS ANALYZE RESPONSIBLY.

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