Texas is among the most recent batch of states to implement licensing rules governing the practice of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
In 2015, the legislature passed House Bill 2703, which officially established the Texas board of Behavior Analyst Examiners and created the requirement that both behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts be licensed to practice in the great state of Texas.
Effective September 1, 2018, with a few exemptions for students, other licensed behavioral health professionals, and educators, anyone practices the profession and describes themselves as a behavior analyst must have a license.
The licensing process in Texas is overseen by the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR). Like most other states that have adopted licensing regulations recently, Texas has taken the path of adopting the standard of national professional certification as qualification for state licensure.
TDLR accepts either the BCBA® (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) offered by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) or the QBA® (Qualified Behavior Analyst) from the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis Credentialing Board (QABA).
For assistant behavior analysts, you’ll need to hold either the BCaBA® (Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst) or QASP-S® (Qualified Autism Service Practitioner-Supervisor) credential.
Whichever of those paths you take, you can expect to go through a rigorous four-step process in order to qualify for an earn your ABA license in Texas.
Steps and Requirements To Becoming a Licensed ABA in Texas
Step 1. Earn an Appropriate Degree With Qualifying Coursework in ABA
To become a full-fledged licensed behavior analyst by either route in Texas, you’ll need to earn a minimum of a graduate degree. For assistant behavior analysts, the standard only requires a bachelor’s degree.
In both cases, however, only degrees with specific coursework and in certain majors are accepted. Those majors are slightly different between the BACB and QABA:
- BACB: Depending on pathway, a master’s from specialty accredited program or from a qualifying institution with specific behavior-analytic coursework
- QABACB: Master’s in ABA, Psychology, Special Education, or a related field
At the assistant level, for either path, only an accredited degree and specific coursework is required. Though no particular major is stated, degrees in education, psychology, or ABA are the ones most likely to have that coursework.
The QBA® requires 270 hours of approved coursework including 20 hours of supervision coursework. You may earn that coursework as part of your master’s program, or through a certificate program you take after earning your degree. QABA evaluates your work on a case-by-case basis, but keeps a list of pre-approved coursework providers to make the task of finding the appropriate classes easier. Many of those are independent providers, not colleges, so in those cases you would earn your degree first before going on to complete the approved coursework.
For the BACB, getting the required coursework is slightly more complicated. Today, it’s possible to have your classes evaluated on a case-by-case basis, or to attend a school offering a degree with curriculum that aligns with the ABAI Verified Course Sequence (VCS). In practice, most BCBA® candidates will have a VCS Coordinator from their school communicate with BACB directly to attest that their coursework meets the standards, avoiding a lengthy review.
The case-by-case review process will be going away at the end of 2025, however, as BACB leans more toward preferring degrees with specialty accreditation from either the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) or Association of Professional Behavior Analysts (APBA). The formalized and streamlined VCS Coordinator attestation process will continue to remain in effect. It will also still be possible to rely on degrees that aren’t fully accredited, as long as they are from schools recognized under ABAI’s new Tiered Model of Education.
Particularly in a big state like Texas, it can be challenging to find a school that offers the right coursework in an area where it is convenient for you to attend. More and more students are opting for online master’s degrees that are either accredited or recognized as including the necessary courses.
In either case, you can expect an acceptable education to include a combination of training evaluation, diagnosis, and practical treatment using behavioral methods. Naturally, the coursework at the assistant level isn’t as intensive as that for full behavior analysts. But in both cases, it lays the groundwork for the next step in the process: hands-on experience offering behavioral treatments.
Step 2. Undergo a Period of Supervised Practical Experience
As important as your classroom education is in developing a thorough understanding of important ABA concepts and practices, you’ll find out quickly that every patient and every situation is different. It takes real, hands-on practical experience putting those concepts into practice in order to develop true expertise as an ABA.
For both BACB and QABA, your practical training must be supervised by a qualified supervisor—usually someone who already holds the appropriate credential, or another licensed professional like a psychologist with expertise in ABA therapy.
The supervisor spends a specific period, called supervision hours, providing guidance, feedback, and suggestions as you work with your patients. They’ll ensure you meet the necessary professional standards and develop your skills to deliver effective treatment.
A qualified supervisor offers the kind of feedback and guidance you need to hone genuine, effective behavioral assessment and treatment skills from your classroom knowledge.
For BACB, you’ve got two options for accumulating the necessary fieldwork hours.
- 1500 hours of concentrated supervised fieldwork (1000 hours for assistant ABAs)
- 2000 hours of supervised fieldwork (1300 for assistant ABAs)
The major difference between the two types of experience is simply the level of supervision your receive. In concentrated supervision, you’re expected to have 10 percent of your hours in a month supervised, with at least 6 contacts with your supervisor during that period. Regular supervised fieldwork only require 5 percent of hours and 4 contacts to be supervised.
To become a QBA®, you’ll need a flat 1500 hours of fieldwork, with 5 percent of your period hours being supervised. Another unique QBA® requirement is that you receive a professional recommendation—it’s not required that it come from your supervisor, but that’s an accepted and common option. The QASP-S® requires only 1000 hours of fieldwork.
Each organization has specific guidance on what types of activities are counted as hours and how supervision may be performed and accrued.
Step 3. Pass the Necessary Certification Exam
All the training and practical experience should bring together the best combination of knowledge and practice needed to make you a qualified applied behavior analyst. But for both BACB and QABA, you’ll have to prove that you have mastered those concepts and techniques by passing a written exam on the material covered.
QABA tests are conducted entirely online, with a video proctor. Both exams have a three-hour time limit. The QBA® and QASP-S® exams each consist of 125 total questions, but 25 of those will be unscored.
BACB outsources test administration to Pearson VUE, which maintains a series of examination centers around the country. Texas has options scattered across the state, from Abilene to Austin to Amarillo, but you’re welcome to test in other states if that’s more convenient.
The BCBA® and BCaBA® exams each have 185 questions in a multiple choice format, with four hours total in which to finish. Like the QABA tests, some of the questions are not scored and used for calibration and evaluation purposes; only 175 of the questions go toward your total.
These cover nine categories of knowledge and practice, each drawn from the official BCBA® task list.
Step 4. Apply For Licensure With The Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation
After all the years and effort required to get your BCBA®, QBA®, BCaBA®, or QASP-S®, you will find the final step to actually getting your Texas ABA practitioner license refreshingly quick and to the point.
All you will need to do is go to the TDLR online license application form and fill out the required forms, providing proof of your certification, and pay the necessary fees. It’s also possible to download and fill out a paper application for submission by mail.
The Behavior Analyst License fee in Texas is $165, while Assistant Behavior Analysts need only pay $110.
As with most states, you’ll also need to pass a criminal background check before the license will be issued. Licenses are good for two years.
Keeping Your License as a Behavior Analyst Current in Texas
When your two years are up, TDLR will email you a reminder notice 60 days before license expiration. If you fail to renew immediately, you’ll also get a postcard when you have only 30 days remaining. There’s a 90 day grace period after the license lapses during which you can reinstate it for paying one and a half times the regular renewal fee, but after that the cost doubles. If you let it go for over three years, you’ll have to re-apply.
License renewal fees in Texas are identical to the initial application fees of $165 for Behavior Analysts and $110 for Assistant Behavior Analysts.
There’s no state-based continuing education requirement for renewals; as long as your certification remains current, you will be counted as meeting the standard.
You will, however, have to go through a mandatory human trafficking prevention training course before you will be allowed to renew. Courses must be approved by the Health and Human Services Commission. It’s an ongoing requirement, so you will have to take the course again before each renewal of your license.
Texas doesn’t offer reciprocal licensing for behavior analysts, but since most states accept or require a BCBA®, odds are good that you will simply be able to file for a Texas license if you move here and avoid any other retraining or proof of qualifications. Behavior analysts from out-of-state who provide temporary services for no more than 20 days per year, however, don’t need to get a Texas license to practice.
To keep up with these and other requirements or updates on practicing ABA in Texas, the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis (TxAbA) is a good resource to tap into. Although Texas ABA licensing is a relatively recent development, TxABA has been around since 1985. It’s an affiliate of both ABAI and APBA. And it’s been a force for supporting ABAs and ABA regulation in the state since the beginning.