Decoding the BACBs Supervision Requirements

In this article, I will decode some of the behavior analyst certification board (BACB) requirements for supervised fieldwork hours.

There are two types of fieldwork that can be pursued when accruing hours for the board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) exam. It is important to become familiar with these two different options as they have different requirements to meet to ensure that a trainee’s hours are appropriately accrued per supervision period. These can be found the in BACB handbook for BCBAs which is referenced below!

The differences are highlighted below:

1. SUPERVISED FIELDWORK:

2,000 hours are required total. You have continuous five years to complete these hours.

A supervisory period is one month.

In this month….

• • You must accrue at least 20 hours, but not more than 130 hours.
  • 4 supervision contacts with your supervisor are required in a supervisory period, and 1 observation with a client is required in this month.
  • At least 5% of hours must be supervised.
  • At least 50% of supervised hours must be individual per supervisory period (meaning not in a group).
• At least 60% of TOTAL hours (please read below***) must be spent working on unrestricted activities, which I will break down below.

NOTE: The only time 2,000 hours are not required for supervised fieldwork is for applicants that have a doctoral degree from a qualifying institution and relevant postdoctoral experience. Please see the BACB handbook for more information about this eligibility pathway.

2. CONCENTRATED SUPERVISED FIELDWORK:

1,500 hours are required total. You have five continuous years to complete these hours.

A supervisory period is one month.

In this month….

• • You must accrue at least 20 hours, but not more than 130 hours.
  • 6 supervision contacts with your supervisor are required in a supervisory period, and 1 observation with a client is required in this month.
  • At least 10% of hours must be supervised.
  • At least 50% of supervised hours must be individual per supervisory period (meaning not in a group).
• At least 60% of TOTAL hours (please read below***) must be spent working on unrestricted activities, which I will break down below.

Individual Versus Group Supervision

According to the BACB’s BCBA handbook, supervision contacts should ideally be individual with one trainee and one supervisor. However, groups with no more than 10 trainees can meet as long as these group hours account for no more than half of the total supervised hours per supervisory period.

Group supervision can be less expensive when looking at options where trainees pay for supervision, but it can be hard to get into more detailed supervision conversations in a group format.

***Restricted Versus Unrestricted Hours

At least 60% of the total hours accrued must be spent working on unrestricted activities. This is a requirement for the total hours accrued (i.e. the 2,000 or 1,500 requirement)- it is not a requirement that must be met per month.

Unrestricted activities are the things that a behavior analyst will perform after they are certified. These include things like collecting data, training other staff and stakeholders on ABA programs and techniques, conducting ABA assessments, graphing data and progress, researching for a client’s interventions and writing ABA programming.

Restricted activities should account for less than 40% of total fieldwork hours accrued- these include hours the trainee is delivering therapeutic and instructional procedures to a client.

Remember, in one supervision period- you can have 100% of your hours be restricted or unrestricted activities as long as you don’t go over the total percentage limits for these activity types.

It is also crucial to make sure that as a trainee you are not counting hours that are not behavior-analytic in nature. These are things like attending staff meetings on organization specific policies and updates, administrative activities like billing and scheduling, and completing schoolwork and school-related readings.

Checklist for Trainees

Here is a sample checklist that trainees can review to make sure they are meeting their supervised fieldwork hour requirements.

Before submitting your supervised fieldwork hours for the month, do you have:

• • • • At least 20, but not more than 130 hours
      • 4 contacts with your supervisor
      • 1 client observation with your supervisor
      • 5% of your hours supervised
      • At least 50% of supervision hours given individually

            Before submitting your total supervised fieldwork hours at the end of your supervision journey (achieved 2,000 hours), do you have:

• • • • 2,000 hours
      • At least 60% of total hours engaged in unrestricted activities

Here is a sample checklist that trainees can review to make sure they are meeting their concentrated supervised fieldwork requirements.

Before submitting your concentrated supervised fieldwork hours for the month, do you have:

• • • • At least 20, but not more than 130 hours
      • 6 contacts with your supervisor
      • 1 client observation with your supervisor
      • 10% of your hours supervised
      • At least 50% of supervision hours given individually

            Before submitting your total supervised fieldwork hoursat the end of your supervision journey (achieved 1,500 hours), do you have:

• • • • 1,500 hours
      • At least 60% of total hours engaged in unrestricted activities

I hope breaking down the requirements, providing explanations, and a visual checklist will be helpful to trainees. As always, it is important to continually follow the behavior analyst certification board’s website for updates to supervised fieldwork hour requirement changes. Throughout your supervision experience use the BACB’s BCBA handbook to gain a solid understanding of the expectations and requirements for both BCBA supervisors and their trainees.

REFERENCES

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2023). Board Certified Behavior Analyst® Handbook. bacb.com. https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BCBAHandbook_231227-a.pdf