The BACB is closing new applications in some countries. Here is what that means for your child's therapist.

If you live in the United Kingdom, or one of the many countries where the Behavior Analyst Certification Board no longer takes new applicants, and your child receives ABA, you may have heard that the BACB is "leaving". Your child's therapist may have mentioned it. A parents' group may have passed it around with some alarm. This page is for you, not for the therapist, and it starts with the part that is most often lost:

The changes differ by credential and location. UK certificants who qualified before the application cutoff may continue to recertify under BACB rules. Ontario’s RBT and BCaBA transitions also affected existing holders, as described below; check the current BACB notice for your own credential.

The dates, from the BACB itself

These are the board's own words on its international development page, which is where it publishes changes by country.

• United Kingdom: UK residents can no longer apply for new BACB certification from January 1, 2026. Earlier certificants should check their current recertification requirements. UK-SBA now offers the postgraduate-level UKBA(cert) and a searchable register; check its current requirements. Neither credential alone establishes permission for every role or service.
• Canada (Ontario only): June 30, 2026. Ontario residents can no longer apply for BCBA or BCBA-D certification after that date, and RBT and BCaBA applications have already closed with existing holders moved to voluntary inactive status. Those who already hold BCBA or BCBA-D may maintain it. The rest of Canada is unaffected.
• Australia: January 1, 2027. The BACB stops offering new certifications in Australia. This one was requested by the Australian association's own board rather than imposed from outside.

If you see a different date somewhere, including on one of our own pages, the BACB's international page is the one to believe, and it is linked below.

What does not change

Training and experience do not disappear on a calendar date, but a credential’s status and a payer’s or authority’s requirements can change. Ask the practitioner, payer and relevant authority what applies to your child’s actual services.

The methods do not change either. The research your therapist's practice is built on is the same research whichever board's name is on the certificate.

What does change, and the three questions worth asking

What changes is the paperwork behind the person, and paperwork matters here, because a credential is one of the few things a family can actually check about someone they let into their home. Three questions cover it.

1. Which credential will you hold after the transition, and by when? A good answer names a body (the UK-SBA, the IBAO, a national register, a local licence) and a rough timeline. "I'm looking into it" is an honest answer early on. No answer at all, a year in, is a reason to ask again in writing.

2. Who supervises you, and what will they hold? In many countries the person in your home is a technician or assistant working under a certified analyst. If so, question 1 applies to that analyst too, and their answer matters more than the technician's.

3. Does this change anything about who can be paid to work with my child? This is the practical one, and the answer is different by country. In the UK, where much ABA is arranged privately or through an education authority, ask your provider whether they have checked with whoever pays.

None of these questions is hostile. A provider who has planned for this will be glad you asked; that is rather the point of asking.

If you are choosing a provider right now

The transition makes an old rule more important, not less: choose the practice, not the letters. Our guides on how to choose an ABA provider and how to vet one were written to work in any country. The short version: ask to see the data they keep, ask how they train parents, ask what happens when something is not working, and be wary of anyone who promises a particular outcome.

Two free things help here, in any country. Our guide to who owns your child's provider walks through what you can check about a company before you commit (ownership, transparency, the questions that are public record), and it needs no account. Our free tools, like the visual schedule maker and the social story creator, work from anywhere and need no account either.

If you want to talk it through

V-CAT is a Special Learning program. Contact us to ask about service options, availability for your location and the applicable price. Ask about V-CAT

For the practitioner reading over a parent's shoulder

Tell your families before they ask you. A parent who hears "the BACB is leaving" from a forum hears something frightening; a parent who hears it from you hears a plan.

One caution worth stating plainly: continuing education is not interchangeable across bodies. Whether any particular course counts toward the UK-SBA, the IBAO, a national register or a local licence is that body's decision, not ours. Check their rules before you count anything. Our country pages and the UK transition guide set out the pathways as we understand them, and the BACB's international page is the source for the dates.

Where to go next

Your country's page in our international section carries the credentialing and provider detail for where you live. The UK transition guide is the fullest account of the UK pathways. And if the only thing you take from this page is the three questions above, write them down and ask them at the next session.

Updated October 27, 2026. This page is general information, not medical advice. Talk with your child's clinician about your specific situation.