Restricted vs. Unrestricted BCBA Fieldwork Activities

Your fieldwork hours must reflect the actual duties of a BCBA rather than the role of a technician or direct care provider. To ensure this, the BACB strictly mandates that the majority of your time is spent on unrestricted activities.

The 60% Unrestricted Requirement

For both BCBA Supervised Fieldwork and Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork, at least 60% of your total fieldwork hours must be unrestricted. This rule ensures you spend adequate time designing programs, training others, and analyzing data.

Note for BCaBA candidates: The unrestricted requirement for BCaBA fieldwork is 40% of total hours.

What Counts as Unrestricted?

Unrestricted activities are those most closely aligned with the daily responsibilities of an independent behavior analyst. According to the BACB Handbook, examples of unrestricted activities include:

• 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 literature relevant to a current client's programming.
• Writing and revising behavior-analytic programs.

What Counts as Restricted?

Restricted activities involve the direct implementation of therapeutic and instructional procedures. These activities are capped at 40% of your total fieldwork hours. There is no minimum requirement for restricted hours—you could theoretically complete 100% of your fieldwork in unrestricted activities.

If you are collecting data solely as part of executing a client's treatment program (direct therapy), it is typically classified as a restricted activity.

Unacceptable Activities

Not everything you do at work qualifies as fieldwork. The BACB explicitly prohibits counting the following activities toward your hours:

• Attending professional conferences, workshops, or university courses.
• Completing didactic-course assignments (e.g., homework, readings) and quizzes.
• Attending meetings with little or no behavior-analytic content.
• Providing interventions that are not based in behavior analysis.
• Performing non-behavior-analytic administrative activities, paperwork, or billing.
• Participating in non-behavior-analytic trainings (e.g., crisis management, CPR).
• Role-playing behavior-analytic procedures that are not client-related.