Applied Behavior Analysis · Clinical Consulting · Bay Area & Beyond
The Clinical Team Behind Outcomes That Last
Qualys Learning Group is a boutique Applied Behavior Analytic practice delivering behavioral support services across educational, residential, and community environments throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions.
Qualys Learning Group partners with school districts, behavioral health organizations, residential providers, and families to solve complex behavioral challenges through evidence-based clinical consultation, systems design, and behavioral expertise.
Expertise
Residential.
Community.
That Last.
Our Work Is
Precise. Practical. Grounded in 30 years of applied behavioral science across the environments that matter most
Our Partners
Regional centers, school districts, residential operators, and behavioral health organizations who need a clinical team they can trust completely.
Our Standard
Behavior change should expand what is possible for a person — not simply reduce what is difficult.
Our Differentiator
The Qualys Environment Intelligence™ Framework
Our differentiator is speed and precision — the ability to customize a plan to the individual, and fit it precisely to the environment that has to carry it.
Effective behavioral programming requires more than clinical knowledge. It requires the ability to read an environment — the classroom teacher's bandwidth, the residential staff team's capacity, the motivational systems already in place, the organizational culture that will either carry a plan forward or quietly abandon it.
This is where Qualys Learning Group excels. We don't simply change behavior. We analyze and shape the entire environment where behavior occurs — including staff behavior, leadership systems, organizational contingencies, communication patterns, and implementation fidelity.
We design programs that don't just work clinically but fit seamlessly into the real settings where they will be implemented. A skill acquisition plan a teacher will actually follow. A reinforcement system residential staff can sustain. An in-home and community support structure a family can carry forward.
But fit is only the starting point. Where implementation requires greater capacity we build it — shaping the behaviors of staff teams and stakeholders, connecting them to immediate, mid-term, and long-term outcomes through structured feedback, data-driven coaching, and carefully designed contingencies.
For us team collaboration, shared belief in the individual, and commitment to the process are not separate from clinical design — they are the foundation of it.
Our clinical expertise spans the full arc — from stabilizing and managing moderate to severe challenging behavior in the immediate term, to building the communication, adaptive skills, and independence that make challenging behavior irrelevant over time.
Why Organizations Choose Qualys Learning Group
Five Reasons Partners Stay With Us
Clinical
Expertise
30+ Years of Applied
Behavioral Experience
Deep, proven expertise across residential, educational, and community settings — built over three decades of real clinical work, not theory.
Systems Thinking
Programs Designed for
Real-World Implementation
Every program is built to work inside the actual environment — with the actual team — not in ideal conditions that rarely exist.
Staff
Development
Building the People
Who Deliver Care
We invest in the skills, confidence, and clinical judgment of every staff member responsible for implementation. Strong teams produce lasting outcomes.
Organizational
Partnership
Supporting Leadership at Every
Level
We work at the organizational level — supporting leadership systems, contingency management, and implementation fidelity across the full structure.
Sustainable
Outcomes
Built for Long-Term
Success and Generalization
Outcomes that hold over time, across environments, and without ongoing external support. That is the standard every Qualys Learning Group program is built to reach.
Our Philosophy
"Behavior change should expand what is possible for a person — not simply reduce what is difficult."
Every plan we develop is oriented toward independence, communication, and quality of life. We measure success not by the reduction of a target behavior in a controlled setting — but by what opens up for an individual when the right support is finally in place. The relationships that become possible. The environments that become accessible. The life that becomes livable.
The Outcomes We Are Most Proud Of Are Not Found in Data Sheets Alone
What That Looks Like in Practice
This is what applied behavior analysis looks like when it is done right — when the science is paired with genuine human care.
A young adult who spent years unable to visit family without incident — now home for the holidays. Boarding planes. Spending weeks at a time with the people who love them.
A family living in fear of their child's aggression — now living with calm, connection, and genuine hope for the future.
A child with autism successfully included in a general education classroom — participating, learning, and belonging alongside their peers.
A nonverbal individual with no functional way to communicate their needs — now using a communication system to express themselves and get their needs met without engaging in challenging behavior.
A teenager who was truant, disengaged, and heading toward dropout — now attending class, building confidence, and on track to graduate.
A teenager who was truant, disengaged, and heading toward dropout — now attending class, building confidence, and on track to graduate.
Built for the Organizations and Families That Do This Work
Who We Work With
Behavioral Health Organizations
Clinical Partnership Model
Full-service clinical consulting for EBSH operators and behavioral health companies — delivering comprehensive ABA services under your brand.
School Districts
School Based Behavioral Health
Direct contract services delivering behavioral consultation, Functional Behavior Assessments, Behavior Support Plans, and qualified Behavior Technicians and Registered Behavior Technicians to support student success.
Regional Centers
Residential & Community Support
Partnering with regional centers and vendor networks to deliver individualized behavioral support for adults and teens with developmental disabilities.
Families
Remote Parent Consultation
Remote parent training and behavioral consultation for families navigating complex developmental and behavioral challenges — wherever you are.
Four Principles That Guide Every Engagement
Our Approach
01
Grounded in the principles of applied behavior analysis — the most empirically validated framework for understanding and changing behavior. We assess, design, implement, and measure. Every time.
Evidence-Based
02
We begin with the individual — their strengths, their needs, their environment, and the people around them. Every plan is built around the whole person, not just the presenting behavior.
Person-Centered
03
Clinical rigor means nothing if a plan cannot be executed by the team responsible for it. We design for implementation — programs that fit the real environment, the real staff, the real daily rhythm.
Practical by Design
04
The goal is independence — behavior that transfers across environments, people, and situations without ongoing external support. Stimulus and response generalization guide every program we build.
Built for Generalization
Led by Experience. Built on Results.
The Practice
Founder & Managing Director
Donald Wachelka, M.A., BCBA
Donald Wachelka has spent more than 30 years working at the intersection of applied behavior analysis, education, and residential support — founding, scaling, and leading behavioral organizations across the United States and internationally.
His career spans the full breadth of behavioral practice. He has built and led residential support organizations, developed school district partnerships addressing the most complex behavioral and educational challenges, and provided organizational consultation to behavioral health companies and residential operators navigating clinical, regulatory, and leadership demands simultaneously.
Donald has founded multiple behavioral organizations — including nationally recognized programs in the United States and a behavioral health organization in the United Kingdom. His experience in leadership development, staff performance systems, and organizational contingency management brings a dimension to clinical consultation that few practitioners can offer.
He founded Qualys Learning Group in 2017 with a clear mandate: build a practice that delivers clinical excellence without losing sight of the human beings at the center of every plan.
Today Qualys Learning Group operates as a boutique high-touch practice — a small team of Board Certified Behavior Analysts selected for clinical skill, professional integrity, and genuine commitment to the individuals, families, and organizations they serve. We are not the largest practice in the Bay Area. We are among the most experienced — and our partners stay with us because of what that experience produces.