Things I learned today: Part 200 of the NYS regulations , which deals with issues of special education law, does not specify who can perform an FBA, though it does indicate what it should include (incidentally, Part 200 seems to be hidden on the website--you have to look under publications, which is not intuitively what one would think to check under).

There are no very specific guidelines for who gets an alternate assessment in place of the state's standardized tests. So if a principal, for example, feels like boosting scores in a school, s/he can manipulate the CSE process to indicate that a student should be getting alternate assessments, even though the state's vague guidelines only indicate that alternate assessments are for students with severe cognitive deficits AND other issues. One gets why the language is vague, but one also sees the loophole forming shape.