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. Passy is not a supervision record and does not award PDUs. How to become an RBT covers 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)

If you are not providing behavior-analytic services, monthly supervision is not required to keep your certification, but the other maintenance requirements still apply. For a long break, the handbook points to voluntary inactive status.

Who can supervise you

Every RBT Supervisor must hold BCBA or BCaBA certification. BACB eliminated the noncertified RBT Supervisor role on January 1, 2026. If you have more than one supervisor, an RBT Requirements Coordinator may coordinate them, and that person must be a BCBA. You can have only one Requirements Coordinator per organization.

Before supervising anyone, RBT Supervisors and Requirements Coordinators must complete training based on BACB’s Supervisor Training Curriculum Outline (2.0). You may not be related to, superior to, an employer of, or in a multiple relationship with your supervisor or coordinator. Paying for supervision does not make you the supervisor’s employer.

Documentation and the registry

You and the supervisor keep records for at least seven years: the days and times you provided services, the dates and duration of supervision, its format, the dates of direct observations, who supervised you, and proof of the supervisor’s relationship to the client. 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.

BACB can audit current and former RBTs at any time. An RBT found substantially noncompliant can lose the certification or the right to recertify and cannot reapply for six months.

If the 5% math still confuses a team, ask the supervisor or RBT Requirements Coordinator, and do not treat Passy as supervision.

How 2026 recertification fits

Through December 31, 2026, a recertification filing meets the current maintenance requirement one last time, for example the Recertification Competency Assessment, and pays the 2026 recertification fee. That filing does not itself require 12 PDUs. Once it is approved, the 2-year cycle begins.

The handbook’s “Recertification After January 1, 2027” section says someone who becomes certified in 2026, or who recertifies in 2026, then earns 12 PDUs during each 2-year cycle. Those hours must fall inside the cycle they are applied to. The handbook’s example is a September 30, 2026 recertification date: PDUs count from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2028, toward the next application. PDUs are ongoing education. They cannot replace client-specific supervision. You still meet monthly supervision in months you practice. Use the BACB portal dates, not a social-media summary.

Supervision is also exam content. Ethics task F.3 is providing services only under supervisors who meet BACB requirements, and F.4 covers effective supervision practices, so expect options that quietly break the rules above.

If you are still preparing for the exam, keep a general RBT practice block in the Passy RBT prep app →, and keep the 5% log for the job.