How to…
Become a BCBA if you are already working in a school….
Meghan, The School Based BCBA, here sharing all the info on steps to take if your curious about what I do! I am a former Special Education Teacher who struggled with behavior and had other teacher’s coming to me with behavior questions and no answers or support.
I pursued a masters in behavior analysis because that seemed like a great idea...no clue what a BCBA was at the time! Because of that my path looked a little different to what yours could. Fast forward a few years and a “retirement” from the education world and I became a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst).
One of my most asked questions is “how do I do what you do?” or “how do I get my BCBA?”. Here are some of the requirements for the most typical route…
a masters in behavior analysis
2000 fieldwork hours
5% of those hours supervised by a BCBA
Pass the BCBA exam
Yes, you can do all of this while teaching with the right supervisor and support from your administration. The BACB website offers a ton of information on how to go about this process, and if you are interested I would highly recommend combing through their resources, and this handbook specifically, but I will give you some of the basic info.
Here is a list of approved coursework by the BACB that you can take to become certified. Make sure any coursework you take is approved on this list.
The second part is collecting fieldwork hours, these are hours where you are applying behavior analytic skills that are on the current BCBA Task List. 5% of these hours need to be supervised by a qualified BCBA. A lot of the things you are doing in a school setting, especially if your a special education teacher, will be able to be counted. You can begin your hours when you begin coursework.
Hopefully, someone (a qualified BCBA) at your current workplace can supervise you. Otherwise, you’ll need to seek a BCBA who offers this as a service. I do offer some supervision for students and specialize in the area of those collecting hours in schools, obviously lol!
Once you have all of your fieldwork hours and your coursework complete it’s time to take your exam! You’ll apply for that through the BACB website, but I highly recommend studying first!!
Here are some great options to help you study!
