Schedules aligned- you’ve found your dream board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) supervisor! As a trainee, you dive into completing your supervision hours as soon as a supervision contract is signed. Counting each carefully, (hopefully utilizing an amazing online tracker!) the hard part is over, right? That depends, tread carefully- if you didn’t document it, it didn’t happen!
In this article, I will give an overview of documentation needed during your supervision experience according to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s (BACB) BCBA Handbook. While individual supervision documentation systems are up to the trainee and supervisor to create together- there are two forms that should be used by trainees to verify their supervised fieldwork experience for their BCBA certification:
Monthly Fieldwork Verification Forms
The Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form is used every month to document fieldwork hours, observations, and supervision meetings. It also allows supervisors to sign off that you have completed the requirements for hours per month. This form is not turned into the behavior analyst certification board (BACB) when a trainee turns in their application to sit for the BCBA exam. Instead, it should be saved by both the trainee and supervisor for seven years in case of an audit or in the event that the board requests it.
An important thing to remember about these forms is they MUST be signed by the last day of the calendar month following the month you are recording. For example, a June form must be signed by July 31st to count. If it is signed August 1st or later- it will not be able to count towards a trainee’s supervisory experience. It is important that both the supervisor and trainee be aware of deadlines for fieldwork. For supervisors- it's important to guide and shape the timely submissions that we would like to see. For trainees- getting documentation submitted on time can be important practice for their future roles as BCBAs.
There are two types of Monthly Fieldwork Verification Forms, these include:
The Individual Supervisor form is for a trainee that has one supervisor in a given month that agrees to attest that all fieldwork requirements were met for the month they are signing. The supervisor must agree that requirements such as the client observation and supervision contacts were met.
The Multiple Supervisors at One Organization form is for a trainee that has more than one supervisor- all of these supervisors must work together to make sure that fieldwork requirements are met in a given month. The responsible supervisor then signs to attest that all the requirements were met for the month on the verification form.
Final Fieldwork Verification Forms
Once a trainee has completed their supervised fieldwork hour requirements with one specific organization (either with an individual supervisor or an organization with multiple supervisors) they should complete a Final Fieldwork Verification Form. This is what is turned in with a trainee’s application to sit for the BCBA or BCaBA exam.
There are two types of Final Fieldwork Verification Forms, which are:
This form can be confusing for trainees because one Final Fieldwork Verification Form doesn’t necessarily reflect all of the supervision hours that they have received. Multiple Final Fieldwork Verification Forms can be turned in together to show that a trainee has completed their overall requirements to sit for the exam (usually 2,000 or 1,500 hours).
How does this happen?
A new Final Fieldwork Verification Form should be completed for each unique supervision experience. For example, if you work in a school seeing clients under one BCBA for three months- you would have three Monthly Fieldwork Verification Forms: Individual Supervisor. At the end of those three months, if you are finished working with the school, you should also have a Final Fieldwork Verification Form: Individual Supervisor that has an overview of all the hours you have completed with that three month experience.
Then, if you work in a clinic for six months under several BCBAs- you would have six Monthly Fieldwork Verification Forms: Multiple Supervisors at One Organization and at the end of those six months if you finish working at the clinic you should also get your Final Fieldwork Verification Form: Multiple Supervisors at One Organization that reflects the total number of hours you have completed in those six months.
Another thing to consider is if a trainee takes a break from accruing hours and goes back to accruing hours with the same supervisor at the same organization- this constitutes a new supervision experience. So, a trainee would need two Final Fieldwork Verification Forms due to the break in supervision. It is important to get that Final Fieldwork Verification Form signed at the end of any supervision experience- even if you will be back- to ensure that the hours a trainee has earned are documented and counted.
Putting It All Together
Unfortunately, documentation for the BACB can seem overwhelming to new trainees who are just starting out on their journey to accrue supervised fieldwork hours. We hope that this article will assist trainees in having a better understanding of documentation required to verify the hours they earn while being supervised. Of course, it is imperative that trainees and their supervisors refer to the BACB’s BCBA handbook regularly to ensure that they are accessing the most current information available. Additionally, trainees should pursue open and consistent communication with BCBA supervisors to gain further understanding of verification forms, their deadlines, and the importance of accurate and timely document submission.
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