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Conducting the RBT Competency Assessment: An Assessor’s Guide to the 2026 Rules

The 2026 packet moved several obligations onto the responsible assessor — who you may delegate to, what you must be able to evidence, and what you keep for seven years. Here is the working summary.

If you are the BCBA or BCaBA signing RBT competency assessments, the 2026 packet added obligations that sit with you rather than with the candidate — most notably around who you may delegate to and what you have to be able to show if the assessment is ever questioned. This is a working summary for assessors, drawn from the BACB’s own packet.

Are you eligible to be the responsible assessor?

The BACB’s packet includes a self-review checklist to complete before you oversee an assessment. In substance, you must be able to confirm all of the following:

• You are actively certified as a BCaBA or BCBA.
• You have completed the 8-hour supervision training.
• You are employed at, or have a contractual relationship with, the same organization as the applicant and the client(s) involved.
• You are not related to, subordinate to, or employed by the RBT being assessed. (Compensation paid to you by the applicant for assessment services does not count as employment.)
• You have a process for confirming the applicant completed their 40-hour training before the assessment starts.
• You have identified suitable clients — ones who tolerate new therapists and new tasks and have scheduling availability.
• You have a system to track and retain completed assessments.

Delegating to assistant assessors

You may delegate some or all of the assessment, and you may use more than one assistant for a single candidate. The constraints:

The packet also asks you to confirm you have materials for assistants — guided instructions, evaluation criteria, role-play scenarios, videos — and that you have identified procedural integrity and interobserver agreement metrics with systems to keep assessments consistent within and across assessors. The BACB references a Sample RBT Assessor Log and an RBT Assessor Performance Evaluation tracker as examples.

Running the assessment

Structure

The assessment may be conducted over one or more sessions, and may be conducted in person, live via the internet, or through observations of recorded videos created specifically for the purpose of the assessment. It must take place after the applicant’s 40-hour training is complete, and cannot be completed more than 90 days before the applicant submits their certification application.

Assessment types

Each task specifies which methods are permitted. With a Client means observing the applicant with a client receiving behavior-analytic services. Role-Play means another person acts as the client, used where circumstances do not permit a real client. Interview means a live interview, in person or online, in which the applicant accurately describes the concept and provides examples and non-examples where applicable — and you may tailor initial and follow-up questions to the applicant’s current clients and workplace.

Three of tasks 6–14 must be demonstrated with a client. Tasks 16–19 are interview-only. Tasks 13 and 15 permit interview alongside the hands-on options; the rest do not.

Corrective feedback

If the applicant does not demonstrate competence, you may provide corrective feedback and assess that task with them on another day, repeating until competence is demonstrated. One rule constrains this: corrective feedback may not be delivered on the final assessment of a task. The last observation has to stand on its own.

Documentation and retention

• Initial the box next to each task once it has been performed competently, and mark the assessment type used.
• Once all 19 tasks are complete, sign and date the final attestation, and record your certification type and BACB certification number.
• Record the organization where the client(s) received services, the organization employing the assessors, and the names and certification numbers of any assistant assessors.
• Sign in accordance with the BACB’s Acceptable Signatures Policy.
• Retain documentation of each assessment for a minimum of seven years — completed forms and a record of which assessors conducted which portions.

Reducing re-runs across your team

From the candidate side, the tasks that most often need a second pass are the ones with no hands-on component to fall back on — task 18 in particular, where the applicant has to state the supervision standards from memory — and the hands-on tasks where the applicant narrates rather than performs. Two practical moves cut re-runs materially:

• Have candidates pre-select their three client tasks from 6–14 based on the programmes they already run daily, rather than assigning them.
• Run the four interview-only tasks as a single scheduled conversation rather than opportunistically, so candidates prepare specific examples instead of improvising.

Our free 19-task tracker is designed for exactly this: candidates plan their assessment types and bring a printed plan to supervision. It is a preparation aid, not a substitute for the BACB form.

For the candidate-facing view of the same form — all 19 tasks with the permitted assessment types — see the 2026 RBT competency assessment guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Primary sources: BACB — RBT Initial Competency Assessment Packet, effective January 1, 2026; BACB — Guidance for Meeting RBT Requirements During the 2026 Transition; BACB — Registered Behavior Technician. Task names and assessment-type options on this page are quoted from the BACB’s own assessment form. Requirements change; always confirm against the current BACB documents before you apply.

RBT®, BCBA®, BCaBA® and BACB® are registered trademarks of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board®. FlashGenius is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the BACB. FlashGenius does not administer the RBT Initial Competency Assessment; only a qualified assessor can.