Most agencies sign a training contract once and then inherit it for years. The renewal date is usually the only point where you can change the term, the price, or what the platform actually has to do for you. Below are the twelve questions worth asking before you sign anything, with our own answers beside each one, so you can put them next to your current vendor's and compare. Where the answer is a number we have to quote, we say so instead of pretending there's a list price.
Use this however you like. Print it, paste it into an email, or read it down the phone. If you are comparing us with Relias, Rethink, CentralReach or anyone else, ask all twelve of both of us and put the answers side by side. That's a better basis for a decision than anybody's sales page, including ours.
The contract itself
1. What is the term, and what happens at the end of it?
Ask for: the length, the auto-renewal clause, the notice window you've got to give, and whether you can leave mid-term.
Ours: volume seats are priced per seat per year. The term, the notice and any mid-year change are written into the quote you sign. Ask for them in writing from any vendor, us included.
2. What do we pay per person per year, and what changes if our headcount drops?
Ask for: the per-seat price, the minimum seat count, and what happens when someone leaves.
Ours: volume All Access is quoted per seat per year with a team discount; we scope it on a call with your team size in front of us. Contract and custom-build engagements start at $10,000, and custom library builds run $15,000–$50,000, so you know the order of magnitude before you book.
3. Will you take a purchase order and invoice us?
Ask for: PO acceptance, invoicing terms, W-9.
Ours: yes. Purchase orders and invoicing are welcome, and that's on our organizations page, not a concession you have to negotiate.
4. What happens to our staff's completion records if we leave?
Ask for: an export, in a format you can read, of who completed what and when, and confirm it's yours to keep. A compliance record you can't take with you isn't a compliance record.
Does the credit actually count?
5. Are the CE courses BACB ACE-authorized, and what is the provider number?
Ask for: the number itself, not the phrase. Then look it up.
Ours: Special Learning is a BACB ACE Provider, #OP-14-2437. Authorization as an ACE Provider does not imply BACB endorsement or approval of the content. That sentence is on every one of our pages, and a vendor who won't say it is overclaiming.
6. Does the CE meet the BACB participation-monitoring standard that took effect July 1, 2026?
Ask for: how participation is monitored inside the activity. The BACB's example measure is at least 3 knowledge-check questions per 1.0 CEU, spread through the activity instead of a single quiz at the end.
Ours: our CE is built with knowledge checks through the course content. If a vendor tells you this requires video, that's not what the standard says. Article-and-quiz, journal clubs and podcasts are still valid formats when participation is monitored.
7. Does the platform track the right currency for each role?
Ask for: CEUs for your BCBAs and BCaBAs, and PDUs for your RBTs: 12 PDUs per two-year cycle since January 1, 2026. They aren't interchangeable, and a system that counts one number for everybody will let an RBT lapse quietly.
Ours: our CE Library carries 32.5 CEUs including 4.0 ethics and 3.5 supervision; RBT professional development is counted in PDUs, separately.
8. Does it cover the 40-hour RBT training requirement, or only CE for already-certified staff?
Ask for: what a brand-new hire does in week one.
Ours: 40-hour RBT training and ABA Levels 1–3 sit in the same catalogue as the CE, so onboarding and recertification aren't two vendors.
What the platform has to do for you
9. Can a supervisor assign a course, set a deadline, and see completion, without exporting a spreadsheet?
Ask for: a live demo of that exact path, with a real deadline.
Ours: supervisors assign courses, set deadlines and monitor completion across the team in the platform.
10. Can our own content go into the same system: our protocols, our onboarding, our state's requirements?
Ask for: whether you can load your own material, what it costs, and how long it takes.
Ours: we build it for you. Custom training on your protocols, onboarding curricula and jurisdiction-specific compliance content, with a 7–10 day turnaround. Ask for the scope and the price on the call.
11. What does it cost to add one more person in March?
Ask for: mid-term seat addition and how it's prorated. Agencies hire all year, and a contract that only flexes at renewal costs you either money or compliance.
12. Who do we actually talk to when something breaks?
Ask for: a named person and a response time, not a portal.
Ours: you talk to the team directly. Special Learning has served ABA agencies since 2010, and the scoping call is with our founder, not a sales development rep.
If you work through these and we're not the right fit, that's a useful answer too. Tell us which question we lost on. We'd rather know.
Related: the agency compliance-readiness checklist · training for organizations · compare our libraries
