What your child’s RBT owes you

The person on your sofa three afternoons a week has a book of rules of their own. It's public, and you're allowed to hold them to it.

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) — the body behind the RBT credential — publishes the RBT Ethics Code (2.0). All RBT applicants and certificants are required to adhere to it, effective 1 January 2022; it replaced the 2018 version, and the current document is marked as updated 08/2024.

We already translated the code that binds the behavior analyst who designs your child’s program — What your child’s BCBA owes you. This page is the companion: the code that binds the Registered Behavior Technician who delivers the sessions. Not the whole thing — the parts that are about you. Every statement below carries the standard it comes from, so you can check us the same way you should be able to check anyone.

1. Your RBT is not a free agent 1.03 · Introduction

This is the load-bearing fact, so it comes first. Standard 1.03: RBTs only provide services under their RBT certification within a clearly defined role under close, ongoing supervision. The code’s own introduction says RBTs must practice under the direction and close supervision of an RBT Supervisor or RBT Requirements Coordinator, and that those supervisors are responsible for all work RBTs perform.

2. Sessions start only after competence is confirmed 1.06 · 2.04

RBTs provide behavior-technician services only after their supervisor confirms that they have demonstrated competence, and they keep evaluating that competence with their supervisor (1.06). They don't use unfamiliar interventions or work with unfamiliar client populations unless they have received proper training (2.04). And if an RBT is asked to do something beyond their certification or competence, the code requires them to immediately inform their supervisor and document it — not to quietly try their best.

3. The plan is implemented as written — and recorded 2.02 · 2.05

Standard 2.02: RBTs follow the direction of their supervisors, accurately implement behavior-technician services, and accurately complete all required documentation — client data and billing records included. The data your team collects on your child is a documentation duty under the code, not a hobby.

Standard 2.05 is the one to underline: RBTs implement restrictive or punishment-based procedures only when included in a documented behavior-change plan and after their supervisor has verified their competence. Anything done to your child that constrains or punishes must already be in the written plan you were owed.

4. Your questions belong to the supervisor 2.06

Standard 2.06: RBTs direct any questions or concerns that they or others — the code names caregivers specifically — have about their behavior-technician services to their supervisor.

In practice: when you ask your RBT why a program changed, whether a procedure is normal, or what the data is doing, the code’s answer is that this goes to the supervisor, not that it gets answered from a technician’s own judgment. That routing is a duty of the RBT. It isn't a brush-off — and if your questions never seem to reach anyone, that itself is a deviation from this standard.

5. Honesty about qualifications 1.05 · 1.01

RBTs do not knowingly make false, misleading, or exaggerated statements about their qualifications or services (1.05), and they are honest generally (1.01). Anyone whose certification you are relying on can be checked in the BACB’s public registry — the same lookup works for RBTs as for BCBAs.

6. Your child’s face is not content 2.08 · 2.09 · 2.10

Three standards protect your child’s privacy, and they are unusually concrete:

• 2.09 — RBTs do not share identifying information about clients — photos, videos, written information — on social media or websites. Not with names removed. Not "just to my page."
• 2.08 — they protect the confidentiality and privacy of clients and stakeholders under all related requirements of the BACB, employers, and the law.
• 2.10 — confidential client information is discussed only under the direction of their supervisor, unless the law allows it for a valid reason such as protecting the client or others from harm.

7. Boundaries: gifts, friendships, relationships 1.10 · 1.11 · 1.12

The code draws the professional line in three places families actually encounter:

• Multiple relationships 1.10 — RBTs avoid mixing roles with clients and stakeholders (friend, family member) when it risks conflicts of interest or harm. If one develops, they must inform their supervisor and work to resolve it.
• Gifts 1.11 — no gifts to or from clients, stakeholders, or supervisors above $10, and even small ones only as an occasional expression of gratitude; a stricter employer policy wins. This cuts both ways: your RBT isn't supposed to be accepting the generous ones either.
• Romantic or sexual relationships 1.12 — prohibited with current clients and stakeholders, and restricted with former ones for at least two years.

8. Harm, and the duty to act 2.01 · 2.07

RBTs do no harm and work to support the best interest of their clients; they are knowledgeable about and comply with mandated-reporting requirements (2.01). When they become aware that a client’s legal rights are being violated or there is risk of harm, they must act to protect the client — report to their supervisor, follow organization policies, document — and in some instances contact the relevant authorities directly (2.07).

What this code is not

It is a private board’s rules, not a government license — and not every person delivering ABA sessions holds the RBT credential. Whether your jurisdiction licenses behavior analysts at all varies; we wrote the difference at Certification vs. licensure. A code on paper is a floor, not a guarantee: use it to know what to ask for, alongside checking whoever oversees your child’s program in the BACB’s public registry. For the duties of the person designing the program, see the companion page: What your child’s BCBA owes you.

Questions people ask

Sources — read them yourself

• BACB — RBT Ethics Code (2.0) (PDF, updated 08/2024, effective 1 January 2022; introduction and enforcement sections, standards 1.01, 1.03, 1.05, 1.06, 1.10–1.12, 2.01–2.10, glossary)
• BACB — Verify BACB Certification (public registry)
• Special Learning — What your child’s BCBA owes you and Who is working with my child?

Facts on this page were checked against the BACB’s RBT Ethics Code (2.0) document (updated 08/2024) on 7 October 2026. The board revises its documents without notice to us. If a source and this page ever disagree, the source wins — and please tell us, so we fix the page.