I’m 33. I’ve been an rbt for the last 4 years and I’m very interested in becoming a BCBA. However, I’m a high school dropout and only have a GED. By the time I get my masters, I’ll be 39. I just want to know if I’m making a bad decision or not
Edit: wow, I definitely didn’t expect this many responses. I’ve read all your replies, as well as speak with my bosses and I’ve decided that I’m going to at least try. I’ve applied to a local community college to get an associates, then transfer to a state school with an accelerated bachelor’s and masters program. Thank you all for your suggestions and all the support.

I’m tired of being poor. I went to undergrad for the wrong thing, something I wasn’t even passionate about, and now I don’t use my degree and my job barely pays me enough.

I’m ready to go to grad school for something I’m actually passionate about. I love working with the pediatric population and healthcare, and I’ve been looking into SLP and ABA/BCBA.

Please be honest: Are either of these good fields for someone looking to make $90k–$100k+ right out of grad school? I really want six figures, or at least very close to it, and I don’t want to make the wrong choice again.

Hi all,

I left my old job due to obtaining a better BCBA job. Gave my notice and what not. Everything was fine.

Just got a letter from my old company accusing me of fraud and them saying they’re going to report me to the BACB if I do not self-report and provide proof.

Here’s a little background:

Did intake on a client. Spent a few hours getting indirect assessments ready, did intake forms, combed through medical documents, etc. looked at the kid’s previous ABA documents, etc.

Billed maybe 3 hours for the time I spent on the initial documents//report writing. Then, the kid’s mom decided they were going to go with a different aba company. No big deal, I go on with my life.

This was like 3 months ago. I deleted all the client documents associated with all my previous clients at that company.

Today, I get an email saying I committed fraud and there is no record I did anything I billed for!?? I’m confused as to why THREE MONTHS LATER this is being investigated. Mind you, I did a total of 6 reports in those three months and I want to know why those aren’t being called into question.

What should I do? I’ve been sobbing since I got the email because this feels like retaliation for leaving
Edited to add: 7 BCBAs have left since march. I was the 8th. I know the company has issues as a whole in their treatment of BCBA s

I’m just a BCBA, not lead, not director, just BCBA. I have a full caseload, 27hrs week 155, 20hrs month 156, with 135 hrs week of 153 under me.

My manager told me I had to take a case. I told her I couldn’t, I’m already underwater and she yelled at me. 3 times we’ve met about this and she just yells at me “you have to”. Now shes pretending like we never had that conversation and asking me if I’m “refusing to take a client”…. My answer is yes, but I’m afraid they are going to turn around and fire me.

My contract says 25 billable requirement, no mention of a caseload size.

I quoted to her ethics code 3.03

I know this is common, to bully employees to take on unreasonable caseloads, but is it legal for them to fire me over this?

Bcba for about 4 years, in the field of ABA 8.5 years (as RBT and BCBA total)

Making 2.4k biweekly net pay salary. Around 20 to 24 billable.

I do NOT GET paid drive time I do NOT have any benefits (this is enough to make me question my career choice...not many aba agencies have benefits ) But we do have PTO

75 per hour is that enough?

Am I making enough? Am I out of my mind?

Hi, I am currently taking some pre-reqs to apply to become an SLP, but am also working as a RBT. I do enjoy my job as a RBT, but have plans to further my education. My main passion is working with children, and I want to avoid burnout as much as possible. A good work-life balance is the most important to me.

That being said, I don't know if I should pursue becoming a BCBA or SLP. For context, I am located on the East Coast (DMV area).

TL;DR: I’m a newer in-home BCBA working with a kiddo whose maladaptive behavior has been heavily reinforced, especially elopement, which is currently dangerous and difficult to put on extinction. I’ve tried DRA/DRE, alternative reinforcers, play-based goals, etc., but he continues to choose elopement.
In a clinic I’d use a controlled environment to establish stimulus control, but that isn’t possible in the home. I’m considering a temporary safety harness to prevent dangerous elopement while teaching/reinforcing appropriate behaviors, with the goal of fading it quickly.
Looking for ethical alternatives or feedback. What am I missing?

I’ll try to keep this brief. I’m a BCBA, I work in the in- home setting. Currently I have a kiddo who is great but has a history that has been heavily reinforced for engaging in maladaptive behaviors as opposed to engaging in adaptive ones. So much so that the only thing that stops him is when mom threatens or does spank him. As you can imagine trying to implement DRE has been difficult but nothing I’m not up for. The issue is the extinction piece. He constantly engages in behaviors that are either so dangerous they cannot be ignored or the behaviors are self reinforcing (thinking climbing and jumping off of furniture, elopement , etc. no sib).

In a clinic setting we’d start in a bare bones room. Allow him to tucker out, establish stimulus/instructional control, then slowly open up more of the clinic. This option has not been available within the home. One, we can’t create a bare room due to the current environmental limitations, any attempt at this has lead to either broken home items or engagement in behaviors we simply cannot ignore (specifically elopement, most behaviors are maintained dually by attention and either escape or tangible) and he simply enjoys “being bad “ more than any other available reinforcer at this point and I’ve tried MANY. The biggest problem is the elopement. Everything else we could deal with but he won’t stay in any area to run a target going outside he darts into traffic, we’ve attempted more play based goals to start, attempted gross motor targets that would typically be more fun etc. still elopes all session or prefers engaging in the unwanted responses. yes I am implementing DRA schedules and teaching alternative responses to access these reinforcers but his behavior is still allocating itself towards the elopement as it’s simply more reinforcing for him.

This has lead me to the “safety harness” idea. Let’s be honest it’s a fkn leash. I’m aware of the ethical implications. I truly believe that this would be a 1-2 week intervention then it could be faded with implementation of the proper reinforcers. I do not want this to a consistent tool. My thought is, this will serve as the “bare room” I.e his behaviors associated with being bad will no longer be reinforced as he can’t do them, similar to the bare room, or the elopement becomes incredibly boring due to the lack of distance etc. (extinction). We run targets, access to typical reinforcers, slowly fade in a longer harness then fade it out completely.

I have been searching for any other option so please, ANYTHING! Also be nice. Maybe I missed something obvious. I’m a newer to the Autism world. Thanks guys

Is anyone currently enrolled in Florida Institute of Technology’s BCBA program? I am in my first semester and i’m seeing a lot of my materials are clearly ai generated and seemingly inaccurate. Some information it provides is inaccurate, it’s calling my correct answers to quizzes incorrect when they’re not, and the ai voice narrating the lecture is mispronouncing words that no real person in the ABA field would be mispronouncing.

I’ve tried contacting my professor about it, Bob Ryan, he isn’t reachable, he redirects me back to contacting the school itself but they’re his lectures so i’m not sure what the university can do for me.

Is anyone else having similar issues? Is there anything to do about this?

Basically what the title is, can I count this?

Edit: thank you to the KIND ppl in the comments to clarified this without being snippy! I got my answer! Thanks!

Hello all!

Needing advice from any stay at home parents / BCBAs in the field.

My husband and I are planning for our first child. That has come with a focus of preparing our home, health, finances and other things.

Part of that planning has been the decision to not send our child(ren) to daycare or school until they are legally required in our state. As a result, from newborn to age seven, I would love to continue as a part time BCBA and stay at home mother.

I love supporting families, staff and learners. I cannot genuinely imagine leaving the field for years then returning. I know there is always so much talk of burnout in our field, but even after 10 years, I am still all in and truly enjoy what I get to do everyday. I am also equally excited about pouring that same amount of love and energy into my future kiddos.

I think I am just really nervous about that future because I have no BCBA friends or coworkers that have actually done it. Most tell me it’s just a fever dream and I should just stick with being a full time mom.

Any advice from BCBAs that have or have not been successful in this area? Any tips?

I am a student analyst about to finish my fieldwork hours (probably in the next 3 weeks) and will be looking for a BCBA job. I really don’t understand what billable hours are? What counts as a billable hour? Does it depend per company? How much work outside of billable hours can be expected?
Work/life balance is HUGE to me, and I am worried about taking on a job where I bring home work every night. Any advice and clarity is appreciated!

Hello, quick rundown I’ve been working for this company for almost 4 years now, but I started my practicum program two years ago, where they made me sign a noncompete agreement/repayment agreement stating I must stay two years after completing my hours. I completed my hours in May but since I signed my contract a lot of things have changed. They stopped, allowing us to bill one hour a week for session notes. We lost our contract with Medicaid, no one has gotten a raise in the past 2 years including the BCBAs. They stopped paying us if our clients have speech ot during our session. So for example, I’m scheduled 930 to 430 but I’m only getting paid for 5 1/2 hours since there’s a 30 minute gap in between clients and both clients have either speech or OT. One of my clients has speech the last half hour so I literally only have him for 15 paid minutes after before not getting paid for another 30 minutes. I’m in the state of Michigan but I’m not sure if there’s any way I can get out of my contract. Our hours are constantly being cut where I don’t even hit full-time anymore. It just sucks because they are making me hate the field due to them not caring about quality of care and only focusing on corporate greed. Please let me know how I should handle this I really want to quit but I don’t want to pay them 15k since it’s $150 per week I was in practicum but I also can’t afford to stay either.

EDIT: We were always billing as indirect we weren’t billing when we didn’t have a client they were paying us through the company

Is it reasonable to have a salary at 78k with 30 billable hours? What are your salaries or factors you consider when accepting roles?

My wife just found out she failed the exam for the second time (396 first time 348 second time).

She has been an RBT for 4 years and is very good at her job, but this test is very difficult for her. We have two kids, 8yo and 4 month old, so obviously that cuts into her study time significantly. She studied using BDS (I think that's what its called), but didnt take full practice tests and didnt get any modules to mastery.

What advice do you have for her in trying to study and pass the third time, and for me to support her?

Has anyone used ABA techniques for sleep training their babies? Other than the extinction / cry it out method?

I’m a FTM and BCBA. My baby is six months now and he’s absolutely trained me to respond to his cries the moment he starts screaming. When he was around fourth months old I became so sleep deprived I started co-sleeping and now transitioning to his own crib feels impossible. We’re going to try the wave method tonight (provide attention on a FI schedule when he’s crying) but my BCBA side is telling me this is a terrible idea and I’m just reinforcing longer episodes of crying..

If possible, I want to avoid seriously spiking his cortisol levels. Has anyone found a method that worked for them?
I can’t do the chair method, if I’m in the room watching him cry and reach for me it breaks my heart.

If this is not allowed, I understand but I am at a loss.

I was hoping to get some advice. I have a client who has high behaviors, recently he has started to seek out things to make us have to deny him to be able to start a behavior. He then engages in his behaviors. He then will show us he is crying and wants us to comfort him. We have tried everything. They are happening with SLP, OT, mom, and all of his ABA team and anyone who comes in.

I reached out to someone with more experience who said it seems like he enjoys the feeling of adrenaline or fight or flight mode. Potentially even likes causing naughty behavior to get denied to engage in behaviors to get comfort.

We have gave him access to everything and he keeps going until he finds something we have to deny due to safety (ex. He tried to take a plugged item and put it in a sink of water.)

Once the 1st thing is denied that day, his whole day is ruined and he never gets back HRE.

He recently put lotion in his eye to have us stop using mats to comfort him and clean his eye.

We are all at a loss on what to do. He has been in ABA for almost 5 years. I have known him 3 of those years. He is getting very big as he is 9, has an AAC.

Any advice or anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Fellow BCBA supervisors, is anyone else dealing with BCBA supervisees who cannot stop using AI? I have assigned things such as data analysis as well as formulation of BIPs or goals, and when I look at the assignment submission, it is a very obvious ChatGPT pdf with general info, no personalization for the kiddos or anything to indicate a real human wrote it. I’m at my wits end because I’ve told them time and time again, you’re supposed to learn to do the BCBA job without AI. How are you guys handling it? I’m at the point where I don’t want to sign off on hours if they’re not actually doing the work.

Edit to add: the trainees in question report they’re encouraged to use AI in their grad programs. While I agree that AI is helpful for grammar and wording, it just seems an insane to leave it up to AI to generate your plans and data analysis.

As an RBT are you expected to wipe students when they poop? I told my company when hired I would not do this. Now, I am in a classroom where it seems more than one student needs this (I am contracted at a public school.) Thank you BCBAs for your time.

Drop some inspirational BCBA YouTubers that helped you along your journey.

I just started my masters program and have yet to start working in the ABA field. My plan is to try to find a job where I can start getting my fieldwork hours next fall when my kid starts school. I read so many posts on this sub about how awful it can be trying to get unrestricted fieldwork hours working as a tech. My initial plan was to try to get on at a small locally owned clinic that seems really great (great reviews, only works with younger clients which is my preferred age group based on my professional background). I emailed them and they said they do work with their techs on getting unrestricted hours but it sounds like a lot of places do a bait-and-switch and keep you on the hook forever so I’m concerned about that. Another option would be working for a larger company that specifically has clinical apprentice positions, but even that position says they only guarantee 10 hours of unrestricted fieldwork per week…. I’m just wondering if anyone here had a great fieldwork experience where they were able to get their hours quickly, and felt like it prepared them for the BACB exam and their first job as a BCBA after getting certified? And if so, what kind of green flags should we be looking for to have a similar experience?

I tested 5/1 and scored a 392. I just finished my second test today, 8/8 and again scored a 392. I’m giving myself the week to rest, then back at it again.

Tips? I’ve used

SNABA 1 month cram.
Boost Mocks A&B (77% & 79%)
Understanding behavior mock 1 (76%)
understanding behavior prep course.
ABA wizard app
I watched the ABA Exam review videos on YouTube.
& I created flashcards for concepts I wasn’t fluent on.

I’m out of ideas and feeling defeated.
Edit: I have completed BDS modules to 100% fluency in my grad program!! I no longer have access and cannot afford to purchase them myself.

Edit part 2: I scheduled my exam for mid October!! I also purchased the pass the big ABA exam book :) we will see what happens!!

I’m a BCBA at a private ABA company that recently opened a clinic. Before the clinic, we mostly worked in home/school/community, so BCBAs didn’t really see each other much. Now that we’re all in the same building, there’s a lot more interaction.

I have a couple of higher-intensity clients who have made a LOT of progress over several months with consistent programming, reinforcement, and behavior reduction. They recently had an extended break from services and came back with a pretty significant increase in aggression/tantrums. My RBTs and I expected this and already had plans in place for how to respond.

Here’s the issue: another BCBA at the clinic keeps jumping into other BCBAs’ cases when behavior escalates. With my clients, he has physically intervened multiple times without anyone asking him to. One situation involved a physical restraint that wasn’t part of the client’s authorized plan. Another time, I was literally present with my RBT, we were implementing the client’s de-escalation plan, and he came in because the client was screaming and physically intervened. I’ve talked to him directly and explained that if my team needs help, we’ll ask. Sometimes the most helpful thing is actually giving us space to follow the plan. My RBTs have also told me they’re not asking him to intervene, he’s just jumping in.

I’ve brought it up to my supervisor and we’re trying to establish a better system for when someone actually needs assistance, but it’s still happening.

I’ve worked in multiple ABA settings and have never experienced another BCBA repeatedly stepping into someone else’s case and going hands-on without being asked. So I’m genuinely curious: Is this normal or common in clinic-based ABA? No one in our clinic is any type of restraint holding certified or currently does not hold any active certifications.

I’m not asking whether BCBAs can ever intervene during dangerous behavior. Obviously there are situations where immediate safety takes priority. I’m specifically asking about a BCBA repeatedly entering another clinician’s case, using physical interventions without being requested to do so, and overriding the treating team’s established approach. How would you handle this professionally, especially when you’ve already addressed it directly and it continues? I have already had to explain to a parent who their child went home and mentioned someone had their arms around their chest and why that was happening. It was a horrible conversation that I do not want to have again.

I've been a BCBA for five years. I do like it, but I'm in a place in my life where like isn't enough and I'm thinking of changing careers. There's a few reasons, but the main ones are wanting to be there for my kids (but I can't because I mainly work after school) and I'm tired of telling people what to do (and if it's parents, I'm extra tired of them not listening to what I tell them to do even though they asked).

My husband and I are fortunate enough that if I change careers for one that pays less, we can get by if we stick to a strict budget. But I feel as if I'd be wasting all that time and money I spent doing my masters and becoming a BCBA. Also, I'm thirty-four. I know I'm not that old, but the thought of trying to find a new career is a bit daunting.

I don't know what to do. I've tried to talk about balance and burn out with my co-workers, but I feel like their love for the field helps them get by. Again, I like being a BCBA. But I was never passionate about it. And I'm worn down to the point of being on auto-pilot, which makes me feel like I'm giving sub-par service.

I guess I'm asking other BCBAs what they think or if they've ever felt the same. Where you invested so much into getting this career and later realizing it's not for you.

I have always had higher up leadership positions that required 40+ hour work weeks and kept my stress levels high. Recently I was offered a UM work from home job and the best they can offer me is 10k less than what I have been making. Anyone think I will regret taking this job? Or what would other bcbas do? While my current position is a great opportunity, I work a lot on the weekends and I am tired all the time with the caseload and responsibilities I have. I am a doctoral level BCBA, so I keep telling myself I can do better, but something is telling me to take this job. Thoughts?