The Behavioral Characteristics Progression (BCP) was originally developed by the special education staff of the Santa Cruz County's Office of Education and VORT for a project entitled Special Education Management System funded under E.H.A.Title VI-B and E.S.E.A.Title III. Within this project, the BCP served as the major assessment, instruction, and communication tool, and over 100 special education professionals helped develop and field test the BCP instructional activities (methods).
The BCP is a nonstandardized continuum of behaviors. It contains 2,300 observable traits referred to as behavioral characteristics. Ages and labels have been omitted and behavioral characteristics have been grouped into categories of behavior called Strands. Strands generally begin at age 1 year (skill #.01 within a Strand), and progress toward more complex characteristics. Strands generally end (e.g., skill #.50) with characteristics which approximate what society considers "appropriate" or "acceptable" adult behavior. Note: the term "pupil" is used throughout the BCP to mean children, students, and adults.
The BCP Assessment Record includes a list of "Identifying Behaviors" behaviors that may indicate the individual needs further assessment and instruction in the respective Strand. These Identifying Behavior can be used for screening which strands are most important for an individual and can help staff focus on the basic need areas of the pupil and in determining priorities of learner objectives
