If you're an RBT, the way you stay certified is changing. After your next recertification, you'll earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) instead of doing the yearly competency assessment. Here's the plain-language version, with no deadline scare tactics.
The three facts that actually matter
1. You'll need 12 PDUs every 2 years. If you recertify in 2026, you do it the old way one last time, with the Recertification Competency Assessment. Your 2-year cycle starts once you're recertified, and from then on the 12 PDUs are how you recertify.
2. Your clock is tied to your renewal anniversary — not a calendar deadline. Current RBTs complete one more renewal under the old assessment in 2026; after that, your 2-year PDU cycle begins. For RBTs who recertify in 2026, the first 12-PDU deadline lands on their own recertification date in 2028. That's plenty of runway — if you start banking steadily instead of scrambling at the end.
3. PDUs are not CEUs. CEUs are for BCBAs and BCaBAs. RBTs earn PDUs. They're tracked separately, so a course built for BCBA continuing education does not automatically count for your RBT renewal. Make sure what you earn is the right currency.
Where your PDUs can come from
You have more than one path. PDUs can be earned through:
- RBT professional-development events from a BACB ACE Provider (our current CE library is for BCBAs and BCaBAs and does not give RBT PDUs)
- In-service training delivered by a qualified BCaBA, BCBA, or BCBA-D
- Behavior-analytic university courses passed with a C or better (or "pass")
The content should build on what RBTs learn in the 40-hour training and the RBT Ethics Code. Supervision, training on one client's program, and fieldwork toward BCaBA or BCBA don't count.
Two things you may have heard that aren't true
Myth: "There's a July 1 deadline for RBTs to have their PDUs." No. There is a July-1-2026 change, but it's a rule for how providers build their courses — not a deadline for you. Your PDU clock is your own renewal anniversary.
Myth: "The courses you've already completed are being invalidated." No. Nothing you've already earned is taken away. PDUs count only inside the cycle they're earned in, so the clock starts with your new cycle.
