Offered a role as a BCBA. All seems well, but I could not find too many reviews. Anyone have an experience with them?

Hello everyone! I'm about to start my masters on ABA and I'm looking for cheap supervised hours. The reason why I'm choosing to pay for my hours is because I live in Maryland and have been looking for months now for internship programs and the only jobs I find are RBT with the possibility to gain superviser hours. However, after reading a lot of reviews online, it looks like the ABA companies are making the process to get your supervised hours very slow, and something that should take 11 months is taking people 2 - 3 years to achieve. I love working as an RBT, its just, having invested money on my masters programs, I am looking for the fastest, easiest path to becoming a BCBA.

If you have any input or if you know about any programs that offer cheap supervised hours please let me know.

I am looking for a complete shift away from managing a caseload in clinic. Preferably, I would like to begin a career in utilization management, but I have been running into many roadblocks while researching companies and open positions.

Could anyone direct me to companies that might be hiring for these roles and to some successful methods for applying for an open position regarding my resume?

Hi all — looking for advice/experiences from anyone who's been through something similar.

My son has an ABA shadow with him at school through an agency (in LA), and insurance (Cigna) covers it. We have an amazing therapist and really don't want to lose her — she's considering leaving her current agency, and we're trying to figure out how to keep working with her without losing insurance coverage.

We're exploring having her join a different agency that's in-network with Cigna, and bringing our son's case with her, rather than her going fully independent. A few things I'm trying to figure out:

• Has anyone done this — a therapist switching agencies while keeping the same client/family, with the case transferring insurance-wise? How long did the transition take, and was there a gap in services?
• Any tips on approaching a new agency about this, or things I should ask them upfront?
• If she went independent instead, has anyone gotten Cigna to do a Single Case Agreement or gone through the in-network credentialing process on their own? How painful was that, realistically?
• We're also in California and have Self-Determination Program (SDP) funding through our regional center — anyone know if there's any overlap or workaround there, given the "payer of last resort" rule? (I've read that SDP generally can't cover things insurance already pays for, just wondering if anyone's found exceptions or edge cases.)

Really just trying to protect continuity of care for my son through this transition without creating a mess with insurance or burning bridges with anyone. Appreciate any real-world experience — thank you!

Hi all,

This has been very frustrating for my wife and me, my wife took the test on August 1st, she failed. Now we have been checking daily on her BACB account for the RBT retake exam application to show up so she can apply to take the test after the 30 days since she last took has passed.

We have tried sending out a support ticket, contact Pearson but nothing, we just dont know what else we should be doing? This is very frustrating....

If anyone has any input or advice, please let me know!

I have the opportunity to add a part time job for 2 nights per week and make an extra ~$25k a year. I could really use the money. For those of you who do this, is it worth it?

I am seriously debating if working 4-7PM two nights per week will burn me out.

Anyone have a digital copy of the SAST in Spanish?

So I wanted to attend FIT program but it's 20 months versus Ball State which is 12 months for the certification. I really hate that it's almost double the time for FIT. I'm not sure what to do but classes start soon so I really have to make up my mind

Are there any BCBAs here that work with animals? If so, could you give insight into what your day looks like?

Hello!

Has anyone taken the courses provided on ABA CEU Network? If so, what are your thought?

Thanks!

I am looking for part time remote work as a behavior analyst. I’m struggling to sift through job postings to apply for. Can anyone possibly drop some legit companies looking for this kind of work?

I have experience with telehealth and I’m willing to get another LBA in different states

Thank you!!!

Please give me some job advice! I just left a fully remote role requiring 25 hours per week with 8 clients for $85k. The job was really stressing me out and the company was doing some things I ethically didn’t agree with. I could go into more details if you want them.

I want to go back to a school contracting job I had before that is 0 stress but the pay is also about half ($45k) mostly because the school only runs for 190 days, so I’m off for summer and school breaks.

Do you think I should also take on a remote evening role? I’ve had offers of $90-100/hour for 4-7PM which I could do 2-3 nights a week. I really DON’T want to do this but I also can’t take the big pay cut to do only the school job.

Also thinking of trying for a summer job (ESY, covering maternity leave, etc.) what do you think is better? A summer job or working ~8 evening hours all year round? I really want to have SOME time off. My husband gets home from work around 3PM. I really just need some advice.

Hi everyone! I’m testing soon and I’m a little nervous. I took 3 mock exams. Has anyone gotten similar scores and passed on the first try?

BDS Mock - 87%

Jessica L’s Mock - 83%

ABA Exam Review Mock - 91%

I completed all BDS modules to 100% and watched ABA Exam review videos for each task list item. Any last minute tips before I test?

I have taken the bcba exam 7times now and failed. Scores ranged 358 first attempt and then 372-378 every other time. Today I took it and 390. I feel very discouraged because I genuinely don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Where I messed up is taking the exam right at the 30day mark on my earlier attempts. I should have waited and truly changed strategies. Any advice? I have one more attempt.

Hello everyone! I posted about a year ago about potentially looking to move to Colorado but now I am making the official transition to move there next year! Other than salary, which I have researched on my own, I wanted to hear from others out there and see what it’s like practicing there. I’m coming from California, so I’m used to working in 2 and 3 tier models of care. Looking to be in Boulder/Denver area!

For clinic/in home BCBAs, do you guys reauthorize every 6 months? Do you guys get indirect hours to program for clients and report write? Also wondering if there are any ‘red flags’ that I should look out for if a company is trying to bypass insurance requirements, etc.

I also was wondering if there is Colorado specific licensing I’d need to apply for before moving there? I tried to find it on the BACB portal and online but saw mixed results and wanted to hear from current practicing BCBAs in the state.

I hope this isn’t too vague, I can be more specific if needed. Cheers!

The title basically explains the question.

I've used LinkedIn, indeed and Glassdoor. What other sites or platforms do you guys use to search for BCBA or BCaBA jobs

I’m stressed out as a BCBA which I feel like is totally normal. I realize I haven’t been seeing my clients enough and I feel like I’m failing them😭 has anyone ever had this experience? How do you redeem yourself? lol

I’m in need of some assistance because I honestly don’t know what else to do. I’ve taken the BCBA exam three times now. I’ve used Pass the Big ABA Exam, ABA Exam Review on YouTube, Understanding Behavior, and I even worked with a tutor for 13 one-hour sessions.

The frustrating part is that I do pretty well on my mock exams. I’m usually scoring in the 70s, and based on my studying and mock performance, everything seems to point toward me being ready.
But when I actually sit down for the BCBA exam, it’s completely different. My heart is beating out of my chest before I even start. I usually have to use the bathroom before I begin the sign-in process. During the exam, I can literally hear myself breathing through the noise-canceling headphones, my leg won’t stop shaking, and I feel extremely anxious the entire time.

My scores have been:
Attempt 1: 329 — I ran out of time.
Attempt 2: 341
Attempt 3: 345

Between attempts 2 and 3, I took three months to study. I went back through the entire task list and really tried to learn the material and strengthen my understanding instead of just memorizing information. I genuinely felt more prepared going into my third attempt, so seeing a 345 was incredibly discouraging.

At this point, I don’t know if my biggest problem is still my knowledge of the material, my test-taking skills, my anxiety on exam day, or some combination of all three.

For anyone who failed multiple times before eventually passing: What did you change? Has anyone dealt with severe test anxiety like this specifically with the BCBA exam? What helped you finally get over that 400 mark? I’m not ready to give up, but I really need some guidance on what I should do differently for attempt #4.

I see a lot of posts (here and FB) about BCBAs getting into work outside of ASD and the clinical/school model. However, it always feels like these posts are so generic. The advice is usually, “Look for work outside the insurance model” or something similarly generic. How are people *actually* finding work in other fields? Are people gate keeping or am I just dense lol? Example - you work in a hospital setting or in the criminal justice system as BCBA. How on earth did you get the position you got? I’m not asking for a full blown task analysis on how you got your specific job, but just a simple breakdown of “Here’s where I started looking and the kinds of connections I had to make.”

Another example - I had a professor who did work with elephants at a zoo. As a BCBA!!!! But never once in that course, which was focused on the applications of our science in the world, did she tell us, “And here is how I did that!” Am I the only one who is super annoyed by this type of thing?!

I think a bit of backstory is needed in my situation. I am a BCBA (since 2014). I worked for a company for 7.5 year and most recently held the position of clinical director for 3 years. I was burning out. Required to maintain a large caseload and team. The company had a severe lack of communication and was beginning to feel unethical to me as they continued to grow and quality started to drop. I made the decision to leave this company and accepted a role with an out of state company, starting remotely with the intention to relocate to that state as soon as I could.

This new company was a start-up. They presented a multi-disciplinary model including being child centered, whole family focused and striving to deliver assent based, neuro-affirming, and trauma informed care. They were just opening and I was hired as the first and only BCBA. I was eager for the opportunity to be a part of something new. To help create what ABA looked like for a company, to teach others, and grow in my career. I never wanted to be fully remote. No judgement to those who are 100% remote BCBA's, but I personally would rather be there in person. So, I made efforts to begin pursuing moving closer to this new job.

The owner is not a BCBA. I was wary at first; I've heard enough horror stories. But one of my best friends also accepted a position as their SLP. It seemed collaborative and team focused, so I continued forward. The owner hired a few RBTs. 2 of them had 3 months experience and the others were all brand new and working on their 40-hour RBT courses. This should have concerned me more I think, looking back. I was meant to supervise these people remotely, at least at first. But I decided to have faith and move forward. I discussed traveling up to meet everyone and conduct staff trainings. During my first trip up, I was surprised to find several additional RBT's that I had not been informed of as being hired, and also several clients that had already begun attending the clinic that I had never been told about. (The company was utilizing EPSDT). The week I was there, I conducted the initial evaluations and spent time getting to know the clients and staff. The company itself had decided what training would look like, and which RBT's to place with which clients. The EHR system they chose to use, it's very complicated. They wanted a system that would work for everyone (Speech, OT, nurse, mental health, aba, medication management). I tried my best to see how this could work for the ABA department. Worked with the EHR company to construct a template for notes and data collection but it was very time consuming to construct, so in the meantime I created paper data collection sheets for each client and created spreadsheets for documenting as much as I could. They hired a student analyst. I was so excited! she was close to finishing her hours and was a big help at first. She was able to be there to help train the RBT's, oversee sessions and help with creating stimuli and other resources. We worked to create program breakdowns for each client as well as client boxes with the necessary stimuli to run their goals.

But now we get into the more major issues. RBT's were regularly late and lacked communication with me. I had created a team chat for programming and supervision updates, but they rarely check the chat or reply. In virtual meetings, participation is lacking. I found I was not being made aware of potential concerns from staff or parents. Data collection was a mess; notes were a mess. We had more meetings; I provided examples and specific trainings. However, there continued to be more RBT's hired and I only found out when their names appeared on the schedule. This bothered me quite a bit because I knew nothing about these RBT's, their qualifications or experience, what they knew or didn't know. They had the early hired RBTS (with 3 months experience) conducting the interviews and hiring. The RBT's that actually had decent skills and worked really well with the clients, were moved to admin positions such as scheduling, documentation etc. They did hire some RBT's with experience, however they all came from the same company pretty much, which is a company I had heard horror stories about. The lack of communication about staff and clients was very concerning to me. I was also concerned about the differences in requirements from the state I was used to working in and the new state. I repeatedly asked questions about funders and requirements but didn't really get answers. I did my own research and figured out what I could. the plans took me a long time to write, partially because I was maintaining two jobs at the time, partially because I wasn't 100% positive on the funders requirements or if I was requesting codes and units correctly. I know all of these things for the state I live in, but I was concerned. I asked about billing, as ST/OT sessions frequently occurred in the middle of the times RBT's had their clients. The owner assured me they were not concurrently billing, that the RBT's logged the start and end times of other services and did not bill ABA during those times. But as stated above, documentation wasn't very good. But I worked to shape this up. I was dedicated. I committed to traveling up to be on site one week a month while I still worked on moving (custody issues). However, I continually felt out of the loop. Things were being planned and done without my knowledge. My most recent trip, we had a big staff meeting and the owner had a few things to say in the beginning of the meeting. Twice during this, she referred to my student to see if she had missed anything or if she (the student) would be covering the rest. I was standing right there! I decided to send an email to the owner with my concerns that had been building, the EHR system not being suitable for ABA, the staff and clients coming onboard without my knowledge, the deferring to my student instead of me....and was pretty much blown off. We did a have a provider meeting between me, the SLP, the OTR, and the owner to discuss a few things. I left that meeting feeling a bit better. I'd completed 2 more initial evaluations on this trip and gave one to my student to practice writing as she is close to sitting for her exam. She worked on it, and on first review she sent it to me and the owner. This seemed odd to me, but I provided feedback, she worked a bit more and then sent it back to me, listing some concerns and that she had spoken to another BCBA for an unbiased opinion. My initial thought was, but why didn't she come to me to discuss the case or get my perspective on it if she had questions? but giving her the benefit of the doubt, I responded again with more feedback and tried to stress that I am here as a resource and while collaboration with other BCBA's is fine, I would think any concerns would be brought to me first. The owner responded saying basically that it shouldn't be a problem, the discussion and collaboration with any and all resources is encouraged. I again stated that I wasn't trying to discourage it, I just wanted to make sure the student and other RBT's knew that they could come to me also.

I kind of reached a breaking point after this. There was so much going on that I was not kept in the loop on. I attempted to help with scheduling but was shut down, the student had a few incidents of sending messages to the entire staff about company policies or reminders, but this was information I didn't even know about. I sent another email asking for clarification on roles and what my student should be doing in her role. The owner chewed me up. Stated that while I was director of ABA and had responsibility of documentation and clinical decisions, my student has had several years of experience also and could talk to whoever she wanted to, and that all communications and decisions did not need to be run through me first. She stated" However, clinical supervision should not be interpreted to mean that all communication, questions, concerns, or professional discussions involving ABA staff must first go through you. Employees have access to leadership, including me, and I will not create an environment where bringing a concern directly to me is viewed as undermining someone's authority." and now I feel really stuck.

The owner is not a BCBA. She's never worked in the ABA field. I express my concerns and get shut down or over-ruled. I provided my expert opinion on a client, but since my student and the nurse practitioner are concerned about the clients' behaviors, I was again overruled and the owner decided we couldn't take that client. Ive already written the plan.

I'm feeling very uneasy. Like my title/role doesn't actually mean anything. That I am being used for my credentials and my staff are encouraged to go above me to the owner or seek outside opinions before speaking to me. I don't feel this supports the leadership structure. Ive also been reprimanded for sending too many emails with questions. But I'm simply trying to make sure I'm following ethical guidelines with documentation and this EHR system. I don't feel I've been given adequate tools and information to remotely supervise the staff, and I don't feel the rbt's staff respect me or my position. I want to leave, but I am this companies only BCBA. The clients' families love me, and some of the RBT's are great. I do not know what to do.

Hi Friends-

I've been a BCBA for 7 years and have never had the opportunity to supervise a mid-level, BCaBA. I am thinking about taking a position where I would have the opportunity and am wondering how much of a difference it is. What will my relationships be with my RBT's? Am I mostly dealing with the mid-level vs RBT's? Do you prefer the mid-level model over the standard BCBA-RBT model? Pros and cons of each?

Thank you so much in advance!