r/ABA • u/Kind-Ad4622 • 4d ago

Advice Needed ABA in Schools

Hey everyone! I just wanted your opinion on ABA being used in schools, especially for our special needs learners or children with social-emotional challenges. I have been working with a SPED teacher since the beginning of the school year and every opportunity she gets, she always mentions that, "ABA isn't the solution" and that "I need to go back to a clinic" as well as not allowing me to practice my ABA interventions (even though that's why I was hired by the principal) and actively discouraging me. Is this just a bad teacher? Should I stay in the school district? Go back to a clinic? Any advice on the matter would be appreciated. 😌

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u/Kind-Ad4622 4d ago

Our school doesn't have a BCBA. I was given the green light by the principal and school psych.

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u/bkingslake BCBA 4d ago

Reminder you cannot practice ABA without being supervised by a BCBA and can get your license revoked if the BACB finds out. The principal and psych cannot sign off on you practicing ABA without an active BCBA designing the interventions. I’m guessing the teacher means well, but does not have a clear understanding of what ABA is since a lot of the principles we use in ABA are the same as you see in a sped classroom just packaged in a different way. Regardless, please remain in your scope of competence and find a clinic that will provide appropriate supervision and support!

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u/AlphaBravo-4567 2d ago

Not true. Even in states with licensure, schools are nearly always an exempt setting. In states with no licensure the BACB has no authority over non certificants. It’s true, of course, that if they were an RBT that they would require BCBA supervision, but they’ve made it clear that they are not.

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u/bkingslake BCBA 2d ago

Yes in these early messages I was under the impression that OP was an RBT which you can see in my later replies about me warning them to protect their license. Regardless, you cannot state you are providing ABA therapy without the correct credentials and supervision. Yes you can use ABA techniques if you do not package them as an ABA treatment plan (ex. visual schedules, reinforcement based interventions, etc.) but you CANNOT legally or ethically state you are doing ABA therapy. From what I understand (and could be wrong), the school is requesting that OP essentially creates and runs ABA therapy programs without proper oversight. Based on the fact that the individual who should be developing programming (sped teacher) is very openly not okay with ABA, this is a huge red flag as to how ethical the schools practices are right now.