When a child or teen's aggression at home is frequent or intense, families often live on edge: siblings hide, parents get bruised, and everyone dreads the next episode. A written safety plan will not fix the cause, but it gives every adult and child in the house the same clear steps, so you can keep people safe while you get professional help. This plan follows the approach Hope Center uses: protect people, remove hazards, redirect, never restrain, and call 911 if anyone cannot be kept safe.
Step 1: What do you need to know before you write the plan?
Spend a week or two noting each episode: time, place, what happened just before, what it looked like, and what happened after. This is ABC data (antecedent, behavior, consequence). Look for:
- Triggers: transitions, "no," screen time ending, hunger, noise, homework, a particular sibling.
- Early warning signs: pacing, louder voice, clenched fists, repeating a phrase, covering ears, refusing to talk.
- Times of day when episodes cluster, such as after school or before bed.
This log is also the first thing a BCBA will ask for, so it does double duty. Our guide on why children hit, bite and kick explains what the patterns can mean.
Step 2: How do I make the house safer?
- Lock away knives, scissors, tools, medications and cleaning products.
- Store any firearms locked and unloaded, with ammunition locked separately, or keep them out of the home.
- Remove or secure heavy objects that can be thrown, and glass items in the rooms where episodes happen.
- Choose a calm space for your child: a room or corner with soft seating, few objects and their calming items.
- Choose a safe room for siblings and other adults: a room with a lock on the inside, a phone and something to do.
- Check exits. In Florida homes with pools, canals or nearby roads, make sure doors your child might run out of have alarms or locks they cannot open, because an upset child may bolt. See our wandering safety plan.
Step 3: What should each person do during an episode?
Write a short plan with three stages, and assign roles.
| Stage | What you see | What adults do | What siblings do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early signs | Pacing, louder voice, refusing | Lower demands, offer the calm space or a break, use few words, offer a choice | Give space, play elsewhere |
| Escalation | Yelling, throwing, threats | Step back out of reach, remove hazards, keep a calm voice, offer calming items, do not argue | Go to the safe room when they hear the code word |
| Crisis | Hitting, kicking, biting, using objects as weapons | Protect people by moving away and blocking with a cushion; never restrain; call 911 if anyone cannot be kept safe | Stay in the safe room; an older sibling may call 911 if told to |
| Recovery | Calmer, tired, sometimes tearful | Quiet, water, rest; check for injuries; no lecture | Come out when an adult says it is safe |
Pick a simple code word that tells siblings to go to the safe room, and practice it on calm days like a fire drill. Our calm-down kit plan helps you stock the calm space.
Step 4: When and how do I call 911?
Call 911 if anyone, including your child, cannot be kept safe, if someone is seriously hurt, or if your child has a weapon. Keep this script near the phone:
"My name is [name]. I am at [address]. My [age]-year-old [son/daughter] is autistic and is having a behavioral crisis. [He/she] is [hitting / has a knife / has run outside]. [He/she] [does / does not] speak, and is calmed by [quiet, space, a favorite item]. Please tell the officers [he/she] is autistic and may not respond to commands."
Our guide to police encounters and autism in Florida covers what to expect.
Know this too: under Florida's Baker Act, "mental illness" does not include a developmental disability as defined in chapter 393, which includes autism. Autism alone is not grounds for an involuntary mental health exam, though a co-occurring mental health crisis can be. If your child talks about wanting to die or hurt themselves, call or text 988, or 911 in an emergency.
For a crisis that is not an immediate danger, Florida law (s. 394.495) requires DCF to contract for mobile response teams that provide onsite behavioral health crisis services to children, adolescents and young adults whose escalating emotional or behavioral reactions affect how they function at home. Ask 211 how to reach the team for your county.
Step 5: What do I do afterward?
- Check everyone for injuries and get medical care if needed.
- Write down what happened while it is fresh.
- Comfort siblings and let them talk about it.
- If your child is in an ABA program, tell the BCBA. At Hope Center, the behavior analyst returns that call within 24 hours.
- If the episode was new, sudden or much worse than usual, call your child's doctor to check for pain, illness or medication effects.
Step 6: How do I get an assessment?
A safety plan buys time; an assessment and treatment plan work on the cause. Here is how to start with Hope Center:
- Call 561-337-8865 or fill out the contact form. Mention that aggression is happening at home and how often.
- Return intake documents quickly; this is the step families can speed up most.
- Benefits verification. We check your insurance for free. We work with Blue Cross Blue Shield (Florida Blue), Aetna, Cigna (Evernorth), UMR, Personify Health and TRICARE East, and offer self-pay with a sliding scale.
- Initial assessment, scheduled after your insurer approves the assessment request, at home or at a center, 2 to 4 hours over one or two sessions, including a look at what drives the aggression.
- Treatment plan, written by a BCBA within about two weeks, reviewed by our clinical director, signed by you and sent to insurance.
- Start, usually 3 to 5 business days after approval.
We have no waitlist, and from first call to first session can be as little as three weeks; slow paperwork can make it longer. Our approach is trauma-informed and assent-based, uses the least intrusive and safest strategies, and never uses restraint. See also how Hope Center handles safety without restraint.