RBT supervision requirements

Every calendar month, an RBT needs supervision covering at least 5% of the hours they spent delivering behavior-analytic services, spread across at least two separate contacts, with at least one contact including observation of the RBT working with a client — and all of it documented. Everything else on this page explains how each of those four parts works in practice, what counts, and how to see a shortfall while the month can still be fixed.

What are the RBT supervision requirements each month?

The percentage is calculated on hours delivering behavior-analytic services — not on every paid hour. Drive time, canceled sessions and administrative time are not service delivery. Define this precisely for your organization and apply it the same way for everyone.

Quick answers to the most-asked supervision questions

How to calculate the 5% supervision requirement

The useful question is never "did we hit 5%?" at month end. It is "given the hours already delivered, how much supervision is owed right now, and how much more will be owed if the current pace holds?" That converts a month-end audit into a weekly decision.

Which supervision contacts count (and which do not)

• Contacts must be real-time and face-to-face — in person, or by synchronous video where permitted. Phone calls and email exchanges do not count.
• At least one of the two monthly contacts must be individual, with no other RBTs or trainees present.
• Group supervision is limited to 2–10 RBTs, regardless of how many supervisors are in the room. A large all-staff training is not supervision.
• The observation with a client may be in person or by webcam, subject to applicable law and client consent.
• Record the format of every contact so the individual-to-group split can be checked without reconstructing it later.

Who can supervise an RBT, and how long records are kept

• The supervisor must be a designated RBT Supervisor or RBT Requirements Coordinator who has completed training based on the BACB's Supervisor Training Curriculum Outline.
• The supervisor needs sufficient client-specific knowledge — normally through the same organization or a contractual relationship with the client.
• Both the RBT and the supervisor retain supervision documentation for seven years, including after the supervisory relationship or the employment ends.
• Failure to meet the ongoing supervision requirement can result in certification termination, a six-month bar on reapplying, and enhanced audit on requalification.

What to document for each supervision contact

The documentation standard matters more than most teams expect. A contact that happened but was never written down cannot be counted, cannot be reviewed, and cannot be used to show a technician what they were coached on three months ago.

What happens if an RBT misses the monthly requirement

1. Record the shortfall honestly rather than backdating a session.
2. Note the cause — supervisor caseload, technician leave, scheduling failure, or a spike in service hours.
3. Put a corrective action against a named owner with a date.
4. Check whether the same supervisor has shortfalls across several technicians; that is a capacity problem, not an individual one.

How to plan a compliant supervision month, step by step

1. At the start of the month, estimate the service hours the technician is scheduled to deliver and multiply by 0.05 to get a provisional supervision target.
2. Book the two contacts in the first half of the month, and mark one of them as the individual contact.
3. Attach the client observation to whichever contact already sits inside a session, so it does not need separate scheduling.
4. At the midpoint, recalculate the target from actual hours delivered and add a third contact if the pace has risen.
5. In the final week, close the gap with scheduled time rather than an unplanned session on the last day.
6. Write each contact up on the day it happens: date, duration, format, client observed, topics, follow-up.

RBT supervision requirements in common situations

Working for more than one employer

The requirement follows the certificant, not the job. An RBT who delivers services at two organizations still has one monthly percentage, calculated on the combined behavior-analytic service hours across both. Each supervisor can only attest to the contacts they personally provided, so the RBT is the only person holding the full picture — which is why the technician, not the employer, should keep the master record.

• Add service hours from every employer together before applying the 5%.
• Contacts from qualified supervisors at either employer count toward the two-contact minimum.
• Each supervisor must have sufficient client-specific knowledge for the clients they observe — a supervisor at one agency cannot observe sessions at the other without that relationship.
• Keep one personal supervision log that spans employers; agency systems only ever hold part of the month.

How supervision fits the renewal cycle

Monthly supervision and annual renewal are separate obligations that fail together. Renewal requires a current renewal competency assessment conducted by a qualified supervisor, and continued certification requires an unbroken run of compliant supervision months. A technician can pass the competency assessment and still be out of compliance because two months in the cycle were short.

When the supervisor leaves or the relationship ends

1. Get copies of every supervision record from the outgoing supervisor before the last day — both parties retain records for seven years, and reconstructing them later is not possible.
2. Confirm the new supervisor meets the RBT Supervisor requirements and has client-specific knowledge before the first contact.
3. Do not let the transition swallow a month: contacts from both supervisors count in the same month, so schedule the replacement contact inside the same calendar month.
4. If no qualified supervisor is available, stop delivering behavior-analytic services rather than accruing hours that cannot be supervised.

Who arranges and pays for supervision

The certifying body sets the requirement on the certificant; it does not set who pays. In most employed arrangements the organization provides supervision as part of the role. Independent contractors and technicians working across agencies frequently have to arrange it themselves, and the terms should be written into the contract before the first session — including who retains the documentation and what happens if the supervisor becomes unavailable.

Requirements are set by the certifying body and can change. Always confirm the current standard in the BACB's published handbook for your credential before making an organizational decision. This page is operational guidance, not a compliance determination.