The Entry Level Route (Supervised Practice) is now open!

The Supervisor's Agreement and Confirmation of Private Practice Arrangements Form required for all Entry Level Route (Supervised Practice) Behaviour Analyst applicants can be found in the Reference Library under "Become a Member". Applicants may upload the completed form to their application.

Registration for the Entry Level Route (Supervised Practice) for Behaviour Analyst applicants opened on November 14, 2024.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to:

1. Carefully review the Registration Guidelines for this route.
2. Begin ordering the necessary supporting documentation for their application, including:
   • Vulnerable Sector Check (please visit the Vulnerable Sector Screening Policy for more information)
   • Official Academic Transcript(s)
   • Confirmation of registration from other regulatory authorities (if applicable)

We look forward to welcoming new registrants to the College for Supervised Practice. For further inquiries not addressed by the Registration Guidelines or the College’s FAQs page, please email us at aba@cpbao.ca.

Behaviour Analyst applicants must have the relevant organization submit the following supporting documents directly to the College: transcript(s), BACB® verification letter, and letters of good standing from other regulatory Colleges/Boards (if applicable).

E-mail is preferred: cpbao@cpbao.ca. If e-mail is not possible, please have the organization mail the document to:

Regarding the Vulnerable Sector Check, applicants may e-mail or upload it to their application form. Please contact the College if your region does not issue Vulnerable Sector Checks for registration purposes.

Supervision is defined as:

…an ongoing educational, evaluative and hierarchical relationship, where the supervisee is required to comply with the direction of the supervisor, and the supervisor is responsible for the actions of the supervisee.

Supervision in ABA is a regulated professional service. The ABA supervisor is in a hierarchical relationship with their supervisees, whereby the supervisees must comply with the supervisor’s direction.

Models of care in ABA can sometimes include multiple teammates working together to serve a client’s needs.

The College does not permit “second-order” supervision. This means that, while a Behaviour Analyst’s supervisees may have varying roles and responsibilities as among themselves, including some oversight or supervisory roles, the Behaviour Analyst is directly responsible for all supervisees.

It may be helpful to think of the Behaviour Analyst as the one responsible for all services provided to the client. There may be multiple individuals involved in providing those services, who may have varying roles and responsibilities. The Behaviour Analyst is responsible for all the individuals involved in the provision of services to clients. The illustration above is meant to assist in emphasizing the Behaviour Analyst’s supervisory responsibilities across different models of care.

For more information, visit the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Portal on the College’s website, watch the College’s video information session on the regulation of ABA, review the FAQs page for answers to frequently asked questions, or contact the College at aba@cpbao.ca.

You may also find it useful to review the resources published by the Regulation Resource Task Force of the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis (ONTABA) here.

Applicants applying for registration as a Behaviour Analyst will be required to obtain a Vulnerable Sector Check. Applicants living in regions that do not issue Vulnerable Sector Checks for registration purposes will be asked to provide a Level 2 Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check. These applicants will also be required to sign an Undertaking and Agreement with the College.

A Vulnerable Sector Check is the standard police screening for individuals who work with vulnerable persons. A Vulnerable Sector Check collects offense information, including convictions, outstanding warrants, juridical orders, charges, and record suspensions (pardons) for sexual offences.

All applicants for registration as a Behaviour Analyst are required to provide the results of a Vulnerable Sector Check as part of their application. The practice of applied behaviour analysis is used widely to treat autism and other developmental disabilities, and Behaviour Analysts work closely with and have authority over children and other vulnerable persons in their care. A Vulnerable Sector Check provides an added level of public protection by obtaining information from an outside entity about an applicant’s good character.

The College will only accept Vulnerable Sector Checks that were issued within 6 months from the date the College receives it.

To obtain a Vulnerable Sector Check, please contact your local police service for more information. You will be responsible for obtaining the correct type of check and ensuring all related fees are paid. Each police service has different processing times, and it may take time to receive the results of a Vulnerable Sector Check. It is recommended to allow yourself enough time to apply for the Vulnerable Sector Check ahead of your registration date, but no more than 6 months before.

All applicants must upload the original results of the Vulnerable Sector Check to the College through the application portal. Applicants should keep a scanned copy for their records. If the Vulnerable Sector Check is password protected, please email the password to cpbao@cpbao.ca. If your original results were issued as a paper hard copy from the police, please submit them to the College in an enclosed letter:

The College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario

110 Eglinton Ave West, Suite 500

Toronto, ON, M4R 1A3

For applicants living in the City of Toronto, please contact the Toronto Police Service to obtain a Vulnerable Sector Check. The Toronto Police Service offers an online, in-person and mail-in option. Visit the Toronto Police Services website for more information.

A unique “Agency Code/Program Number” code that the College has been assigned by the Toronto Police will be required. The College’s Agency Code/Program Number is: 202311TPSONA3383

If you currently reside outside of Canada and are unable to obtain a Vulnerable Sector Check, please contact the College at aba@cpbao.ca.

Only Behaviour Analysts who hold a Certificate of Registration Authorizing Autonomous Practice with the College can provide clinical supervision to Behaviour Analysts in Supervised Practice.

The College will not give credit for supervised fieldwork hours completed prior to the commencement of your supervised practice period. The College will approve the start date for supervised practice based upon the date that your supervisor confirms that their supervision of your work began,

or

the date that the last supporting document for your application was received, whichever date is later.

The major milestones between the two registration routes are otherwise largely the same: graduate-level education (master's or higher), at least 1500 supervised hours, an entry-to-practice examination, and completion of the College's Jurisprudence and Ethics Course and Assessment in Applied Behaviour Analysis (JECAABA). The main factor is timing. For this reason, Transitional Route 1 will be the fastest registration route for many applicants, primarily because the required supervised fieldwork can be accrued as soon as the graduate coursework begins. In contrast, Entry Level Route applicants must wait until they have submitted a complete application to the College before they can begin accruing supervised practice hours. However, it is important to understand that Transitional Route 1 will close at 11:59pm on June 30, 2026. After this deadline, only the Entry Level Route will be available. To assist you in making your decision, the Regulation Resource Task Force of the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis (ONTABA) has published several resources here, including a BCBA and CPBAO Comparison Chart and Student FAQ.