RBT Supervision Requirements: 5% and Monthly Contacts

Five percent of the hours you actually work that month

Ongoing RBT supervision is at least 5% of the hours you spend delivering behavior-analytic services each month, with two real-time face-to-face contacts. Keep exam prep separate from the monthly supervision math your employer must document →. How to become an RBT owns the initial path. 40-hour training and the competency assessment are entry gates. This page is ongoing practice after you are certified.

The handbook’s structure rules:

• at least two face-to-face, real-time contacts per month (not phone-only, not email-only)
• the supervisor observes you providing services in at least one of those meetings (in person preferred; live video may count if it meets the current handbook and law)
• at least one of the two contacts is individual (no other RBTs or trainees present); the other may be small-group as defined in the handbook
• if you work at more than one organization, 5% is met at each organization independently (3% here and 2% there does not combine)

Non-practice months have different handbook notes: supervision is not required to maintain certification if you are not practicing, but other maintenance still applies. Read the current handbook for the month you are in.

Documentation and the registry

You and the supervisor keep records (dates, duration, format, activities) for at least seven years. Supervisors must list you in the BACB portal as required for your structure (RBT Supervisor versus Requirements Coordinator). If you are not listed, the handbook says you cannot practice, bill, or represent yourself as an RBT.

Ethics covers practicing within the relationship and not inventing procedures. Supervision is how the clinical direction stays with a qualified supervisor.

When the 5% math still confuses a team, use a short mixed RBT set so exam study does not wait on HR →—but do not treat Passy as supervision.

How 2026 recertification fits

If you become certified or recertify in 2026, the handbook describes a 2-year recertification cycle and 12 PDUs during that cycle. PDUs are ongoing education. They cannot replace client-specific supervision. You still meet monthly supervision in months you practice.

Through December 31, 2026, some certificants complete a last annual-style recertification before the 2-year cycle begins. Use the BACB portal dates, not a social-media summary.

This is not the exam passing score and not Pearson scheduling. Those remain on their own Guides.

The RBT hub and Guides keep the exam library. Supervision is how you stay allowed to use the credential.

If you are testing next month, put remaining study on the domain that still fails items →.

Monthly contacts are a practice requirement. They are not extra exam content.

Then keep a general RBT block → for the test, and keep the 5% log for the job.