Start Your Future in ABAwith the 40-Hour RBT Training

• 🎂18 years or olderWhen you submit your application
• 🎓High school diploma or equivalent
• ⏱️40-hour training2026 curriculum, completed in 5 to 180 days
• ✅Competency assessmentInitial Competency Assessment, no more than 90 days before you apply
• 🛡️Background verificationCriminal background and abuse registry checks, no more than 180 days before you pay
• 📍Live in a BACB-accepted countryU.S. or Canada (except Ontario)

Your starting point

Meet these six requirements and your path to applying to the BACB is clear. Each one is covered in the steps below — follow them in order and don't skip any.

Complete a 40-hour training based on the RBT 2026 curriculum, in no fewer than 5 days and no more than 180 (the start and end dates both count). It is designed and overseen by a Responsible Trainer: a BCBA, BCBA-D, or BCaBA.

📌 You need it for your Initial Competency Assessment and your RBT application.

What the 2026 curriculum covers

The areas add up to 38 hours; the other 2 hours can go to any area to reach 40.

What you need to start the course

• 🎂Be 18 or older
• 💻Internet and a devicelaptop or phone
• ✉️Personal email addressthe BACB recommends it over a work email
• 🆔BACB account and IDfree; use your legal name exactly as on your ID

It checks that you can apply basic RBT skills in practice.

• 📅WhenAfter your 40-hour training and no more than 90 days before you apply, using the BACB's 2026 packet.
• 👤Who assesses youA Responsible Assessor (BCBA, BCBA-D, or BCaBA) at your organization or under contract with it. They can't be related to you, subordinate to you, or employed by you.
• 🎯HowIn person, live online, or by video; with a client, role-play, or interview. If you haven't mastered a task yet, you get feedback and are assessed on it again another day.

ABA 4 Love does not perform this assessment, but we help you find who can.

📄 You need this assessment to apply for certification.

What the exam covers

Total: 75 scored questions + 10 unscored

Exam day rules

• ⏰Arrive 30 minutes earlyMore than 30 minutes late: you can't take the exam and you lose your fee
• 🗣️Check-in is in English onlyNo interpreters unless you have an approved accommodation
• 🎒Nothing personal in the roomPhone, watch, notes, and bags go in a locker; they give you a dry-erase board
• ⏱️Breaks don't stop the clockAnd you can't leave the building
• 🔒The content is confidential foreverSharing questions breaks the RBT Ethics Code (2.0) and can invalidate your result
• 📅Rescheduling has deadlinesFree 31 or more days before; $27–$32 from 30 days to 48 hours before; not allowed within 48 hours

Exam day

You have one year from approval to take the exam. If you don't pass, you can retake it with no BACB fee (each Pearson VUE appointment is $45): up to 8 attempts in those 12 months, at least 7 days apart. Need a disability accommodation (ADA)? Request it with your application.

• 🏅Official RBT certification
• 📜40-hour certificate
• 🪪Identity documents
• 🛡️Background check
• 📋Updated résumé
• 💼A position as an employeeThe BACB notes that in the U.S. an RBT almost never qualifies as an independent contractor (IRS)

Once certified

Your credential arrives with inactive status: it becomes active when your supervisor or Requirements Coordinator adds you as a supervisee in their BACB account. Recertify every 2 years with your 12 PDUs, and keep the documents employers ask for up to date.