Supporting Special Education Teachers Pursuing Board Certification in Behavior Analysis with Quality Supervision

The principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and Special Education are more alike than different, yet special education teachers encounter difficulties finding fieldwork supervision to meet the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s requirements. Special education teachers spend much of their time consulting with general education teachers to support and change student behavior, observing students in classrooms to identify target behaviors, collecting data to identify the underlying function of behavior to develop high-quality functional behavior assessments, and creating behavior intervention plans using evidence-based practices to promote socially significant behavior for students with challenging behaviors in the school setting. While most Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) work in clinics, opportunities exist for special education teachers to develop and hone their behavior analytic skills while completing their fieldwork in classrooms and schools supporting teachers and students with disabilities, providing a pipeline to evidence-based behavior analytic practices in schools that can effectively change behavior, and adds highly qualified practitioners to the field. This article explores the unique challenge of conceptualizing BCBA supervision in the classroom setting.