2025 BCBA Fieldwork Clarifications: What Trainees and Supervisors Should Know
- Ashleigh Evans (BCBA)
- Sep 3
- 6 min read
In August of 2025, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) quietly made updates to the fieldwork section of the BCBA handbook. No official announcement was made, as these updates were meant to serve as reminders and clarifications, rather than actual new information. However, with these updates, many BCBAs and trainees are realizing that they have misinterpreted the allowable fieldwork activities.
This article will break down what has changed specifically, when these changes take effect, and what they mean for individuals pursuing certification, as well as for BCBAs and organizations that provide supervised fieldwork.
If you want to share your feedback on these updates, please consider providing your input via this quick anonymous survey! We're looking for feedback from both supervisors and trainees.
Changes to BCBA Fieldwork Hour Requirements
The following reminders and clarifications were made to the BCBA handbook in August 2025. We encourage everyone to review the handbook in full on a regular basis, as the BACB makes updates and adds clarification from time to time.
Clients
All fieldwork hours must be related to specific client programming. In fact, the handbook states "all supervision must be related to specific client programming" and "all fieldwork hours must be related to specific client programming" on five separate occasions.
What does this mean? Trainees will not be able to accrue fieldwork hours doing mock client assignments. For example, some supervisors assign mock scenarios where the trainee writes a behavior intervention plan (BIP) or develops programming based on a fictional client. Some supervisors also assign tasks like reading an article and writing a summary or review. These types of activities would not be allowed.
Why? The BACB appears to be reiterating that the point of fieldwork is to develop hands-on behavior-analytic competencies. They're also more clearly separating activities that would occur during coursework (e.g., readings, writing non-client related reports) and post-certification activities (e.g., attending CEU events).
Unacceptable Fieldwork Activities
The other big clarification was a few updated points under the unacceptable fieldwork activities section. The BACB has clarified that listening to podcasts does not count as a fieldwork activity. Also, role-playing behavior-analytic procedures that are not related to a client can't be counted.
What About CEUs?
A common question we've received, even before these updates, is: what about CEUs? Fieldwork trainees are not able to count continuing education toward fieldwork activities. CEUs fall under "attending professional conferences, workshops, or university courses."
While continuing education courses can offer tremendous value for aspiring analysts, their purpose is to expand a BCBA’s competencies beyond the test content outline. Fieldwork, on the other hand, is designed to build and demonstrate the core skills required for initial certification. Both are important, but they serve different functions.
But wait—I thought the supervisor had the final say in what counts as an allowable activity? Well, yes and no. The BACB does include a statement in the handbook that the supervisor is responsible for determining whether activities qualify for accruing hours, but the caveat is that the activities must be consistent with the requirements outlined in the handbook. Therefore, your supervisor can't allow an activity that is specified as a non-allowable activity.
External Supervisors
There was a slight wording change clarifying the role of external supervision (e.g., hiring a supervisor that is not an employee of your place of work). The BACB specifies under the supervisor requirements that, "The supervisor must have written permission to receive client information and must be well aware of the organization’s values, practices, and personnel."
What does this mean? You can still work with remote supervisors, but safeguards must be in place. The supervisor needs documented consent to access client information and must be familiar with the policies and culture of the organization where services are provided.
Hour Prorating and Adjusting
They added clarification that concentrated hours can't be prorated or adjusted. Supervised fieldwork hours can be prorated or adjusted in certain situations. For example, when a trainee doesn't have enough monthly contacts or their supervision percentage is under 5%, they may prorate their hours to make it work. The BACB does allow this. They even provide guidance for how to prorate based on various situations. However, you can't count a month as concentrated if you do any prorating or adjusting of your hours.
Taking Breaks
According to page 23 of the handbook, taking a break from fieldwork under the same supervision contract is considered the end of one supervision experience and the start of a new one. This means trainees must complete an F-FVF for all hours accrued with their supervisor before the break. When they return—even after a short pause, such as one month—they begin a new supervision experience and must complete another F-FVF for the hours accrued after the break.
When Do These Changes Go Into Effect?
These changes go into effect immediately. Because the BACB referred to these updates as clarification/reminders, there is no transition or grace period for compliance. They're also retroactive, meaning previously accrued activities that don’t meet the requirements (e.g., non–client-related tasks, podcasts) should not have been counted toward fieldwork.
The handbook specifies: "Regardless of when the hours were earned, applicants who apply for BCBA certification must meet all of these requirements."
Unrestricted Fieldwork Activities
So—what does count toward BCBA fieldwork activities?
Activities related to client care that enable the trainee to develop BCBA-level competencies count as unrestricted hours. The BACB specifies the following as acceptable activities.
Observation and data collection
Training staff and caregivers on behavior-analytic programs or content
Conducting assessments related to the need for behavioral intervention
Meeting with clients about behavior-analytic programming and services
Conducting behavior-analytic assessments (e.g., functional analyses, stimulus preference assessments)
Data graphing and analysis
Researching the literature relevant to a current client’s programming
Writing and revising behavior-analytic programs
Remember, while a large portion of the field works within the autism and IDD population, a client doesn't have to be an autistic child. The BACB's definition of a client is "Any person (or group of people) for whom behavior-analytic services are appropriate. However, the trainee may not be related to the client, be the client’s primary caregiver, or be related to the client’s primary caregiver."
Determining Whether to Count an Activity
To determine whether you should count a particular activity toward unrestricted hours, ask yourself the following questions.
✅ Is this task related to a specific client? Keep in mind, a “client” may also include staff or parents/caregivers.
✅ Is this task one that a BCBA would typically perform within their day-to-day activities?
✅ Is this activity behavior-analytic in nature?
What This all Means
These updates to the fieldwork section of the handbook mean it's going to be significantly more challenging to accrue fieldwork hours for some. In discussions with supervisors and trainees, it is evident that a large portion of fieldwork, as it currently stands, would not meet these requirements. Specifically, many supervisors assign non-client-specific tasks. Many activities can build a trainee's behavior-analytic skill repertoire on a broader scale that aren't necessarily related to a specific client.
The BACB’s intent with these updates appears to be to ensure that fieldwork remains meaningful and applied. The handbook emphasizes that supervisees should work with multiple clients and across different settings during their fieldwork—an approach consistent with many other professional disciplines. In practice, however, many trainees only gain experience with the limited number of clients assigned to them within their organization.
Recommendations for Moving Forward
To ensure compliance with these standards, we recommend taking the following actions.
Trainees: Review your hour tracking log with your supervisor to determine if you need to remove any hours that don't meet these requirements. Also, review the handbook every couple of months to stay up to date with changes. The last page of the handbook shows what updates have been made.
Here are the BACB's guidelines for modifying a monthly fieldwork verification form:
If it’s still within one calendar month of the supervisory period, you can create a new version and get all of the necessary signatures.
If it’s more than one calendar month after the supervisory period has ended, you and your supervisor can make the relevant changes and have everyone involved initial them. Just make sure that your documentation can support the corrected form!
BCBAs: Evaluate your supervision practices and make adjustments to prioritize skill building with actual clients.
Organizations: If you offer fieldwork supervision, now is the time to take a look at how you're structuring these experiences. Because trainees can only count unrestricted hours that are applicable to clients, they need quality experiences doing the things BCBAs do. Consider creating a structured program for trainees to systematically build caseloads with BCBA oversight. Trainees should be doing more than direct care, reading articles, and listening to podcasts outside of sessions. They need to learn how to administer assessments, write treatment plans, analyze data, create programming, etc. While we recognize many of these tasks would be non-billable unless your payor allows for mid-level supervisors, it is a long-term investment. Considering these changes will make it significantly more challenging to become a BCBA, investing in internal development programs is the best thing you can do right now.
Hiring? Add your open positions to the ABA Job Board!
Partnership & Transparency Disclaimer
The content we share on ABA Resource Center is reader-supported. This means that if you click on certain links and make a purchase, we may earn a small referral fee. Regardless, we only recommend tools, resources, and services that we genuinely believe add value to the ABA field.