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Special Learning · Field guide · Credentials · September 13, 2026

Asked on r/bcba, April 8, 2025 (73 comments): “I am currently in grad school to become a BCBA and I noticed many BCBAs that I have worked with also have an LBA license. I am just wondering why some people choose to get both? Does it make your resume more competitive? Do you get paid more?” source

Why do so many BCBAs also get an LBA?

Because the two credentials do different jobs. A BCBA is a certification from a national board. An LBA is a license from a state board. Where a state requires a license, a BCBA certificate does not replace it, which is why many practitioners hold both. The BACB tells behavior analysts in a licensing state to check that state's board and either apply for a license or confirm they fall under an exemption.

This page is about the United States, because licensure is a state-by-state thing and the LBA in the question is a New York title. If you are outside the US, the question underneath yours is a different one and we answer it on its own page: I don’t live in the United States — can I still become a BCBA or an RBT?

1. Two documents, two issuers, two jobs

BCBALBA (or your state's title)
What it'sA professional certificationA license to practice
Who issues itThe Behavior Analyst Certification Board, a national nonprofitYour state, through a licensing board named in state law
What it provesYou met the board's education, fieldwork and exam standards and you follow its ethics codeThe state has given you legal permission to practice behavior analysis there
Where it's validEverywhere the credential is recognizedThat state only
Who can take it awayThe board, by revoking the certificationThe state, by suspending or revoking the license; the state can also prosecute unlicensed practice

The BACB dates the wave of regulation to 2009 and says the profession “has rapidly become regulated.” Its licensure page lists “the states that currently require licensure, the year the licensure law was enacted, and the state's licensure board.” (BACB, US Licensure of Behavior Analysts, read September 13, 2026)

2. The map, counted from the BACB's table today

The title varies by state. New York's 2014 law runs through the State Education Department's Office of the Professions and its title is Licensed Behavior Analyst, which is where the “LBA” in the question comes from. Massachusetts (2013) and New Jersey (2019) use their own titles and boards. If someone says “all 50 states license behavior analysts,” they're wrong. (BACB licensure table, 41 rows, read September 13, 2026)

3. So why hold both?

The license is the law. In a licensure state, a BCBA who practices without the state license is practicing without a license, no matter how many boards have certified them. The certification doesn't substitute for the license. That alone answers the question for most of the country.

The BCBA is usually the prerequisite. State licensure boards decide which credentials they accept, and each one writes that into its own statute and rules. Colorado's new law is a plain example of the shape: an applicant must “have a valid certification in good standing with a certifying entity” — the statute names a category, not one named board. We have not read all 41 boards' rules, so we are not going to tell you how many of them accept the BCBA; read the rule for the state you want to work in, from the board named in that state's row of the BACB's table. In practice the sequence most people follow is: earn the BCBA, then apply to your state for the license that rides on it. That's why the two appear together on so many signatures. The BCBA got the person in the door; the LBA is what their state requires once they're in it.

Payers enroll by license. In licensure states, Medicaid programs and commercial insurers generally credential and enroll providers against the state license. Check your payer's enrollment rules, but expect the license to be the document they ask for.

Discipline lives with the state. A board certification can be revoked. A license can be suspended, and the state can prosecute practice without one. Families who need to report a practitioner have the most leverage at the state board, and practitioners who hold the license are the ones that board can hold to account.

It doesn't travel. A license is good in the state that issued it. Move, or take a telehealth client in another state, and you need that state's license too. Every one of the 40 boards on the BACB's table has its own application. Your BCBA moves with you; your LBA doesn't.

4. Does it pay more, and does it help the resume?

We don't have sourced pay data by license status, so we won't give you a number. What we can say is that in a licensure state the question is backwards: without the license you can't lawfully practice or, in most cases, bill, so the “resume advantage” is really the difference between a job you can take and one you can't. In a state with no licensure law, the BCBA alone is what employers and payers look for, and there is no LBA to get.

5. What to do

  1. Find your state in the BACB's licensure table. If it's there, read the board's page it links to; that board decides what you need.
  2. If you're still in your program, plan for both: the BACB's requirements to sit the exam, then your state's application once you're certified.
  3. If you supervise across state lines or see clients by telehealth, check each client's state, not just yours.
  4. If you're a parent or an agency verifying someone, check both — they are two separate lookups and there is no single one that covers both. For the certification, the BACB runs a public “Verify BACB Certification” lookup, and our page on who is working with my child walks you through it in about a minute. For the license, go to the board named in your state's row of the BACB's licensure table; that board runs its own lookup, and there is no national one.

6. Sources

Written for Special Learning. Clinical review: Camila Sandoval (AI), Chief Clinical Officer. The BACB's table was read at source on September 13, 2026 — 41 rows, 40 states plus DC, counted row by row — and it's the record while this page is the map. We read Colorado's law at the legislature. We did not read the other 40 boards' own rules, which is why this page doesn't tell you what they accept. This page explains how certification and licensure relate; it isn't legal advice, and your state board's rules govern. Report an error to info@special-learning.com and we'll fix the page, not argue with you.

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