The BACB Final Fieldwork Verification Form is the document your supervisor signs to confirm you have completed all required supervised experience hours for BCBA or BCaBA certification, and you submit it as a PDF through the BACB Gateway portal with your certification application. The Board will not review your application without it. What follows walks through choosing the correct version, filling it in accurately, getting it signed, and uploading it.
Choose the Right Version First
The BACB publishes two versions of the form, and using the wrong one delays your application. Which you need depends on how your supervision was structured.
- Use the Individual Supervisor form when a single BCBA supervised all of the hours covered by that form and takes sole responsibility for that training.
- Use the Organization form when multiple supervisors provided oversight within a single organization. One person serves as the responsible supervisor, signs on behalf of the group, and is accountable for the entire experience.
You complete one form per supervisor or per organization. If you trained under two separate individual supervisors at different points, each signs their own Individual form covering the hours they oversaw. Both versions are fillable PDFs available on the BACB website and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
What to Gather Before You Open the Form
Have these in front of you:
- Your BACB ID number, from your BACB profile. This is not a certification number, since you don’t have one yet.
- Your supervisor’s BCBA certification number, which they can pull from their own BACB account.
- Every Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form your supervisor signed during the fieldwork period. Totals on the final form must match the cumulative hours across all of them.
- The exact start and end dates of your supervised experience under that supervisor or organization.
Your supervisor must have been a certified BCBA and must have completed the required 8-hour supervision training before any of the hours on the form were accrued.1Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Supervision, Assessment, Training, and Oversight The form includes an attestation that the supervisor was qualified for the entire period, so any gap in their credentials during your fieldwork creates a serious problem.
Filling In the Hours
You enter identifying information for yourself and your supervisor, the fieldwork dates, and a breakdown of your total hours. The critical section is the hour summary, which splits your experience into unrestricted and restricted categories.
Unrestricted Hours
Unrestricted activities are the core of your fieldwork: the tasks a certified behavior analyst does day to day, such as designing intervention programs, analyzing data, writing treatment plans, training staff, and conducting assessments. BCBA candidates must log at least 60% of their total fieldwork hours as unrestricted activities. BCaBA candidates need at least 40%.2Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Fieldwork: Getting It Right If your unrestricted percentage falls short, your application will not be approved regardless of your total hour count.
Restricted Hours
Restricted hours come from directly delivering therapeutic or instructional procedures to clients, the hands-on implementation work. These hours are optional and capped. For BCBA candidates, restricted activities can make up no more than 40% of total fieldwork hours.3Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BCBA Handbook Candidates sometimes overload on restricted hours early, because direct client work is the most readily available, and then scramble to accumulate enough unrestricted hours before the end. Track the ratio monthly so you aren’t caught short when it’s time to complete the final form.
Activities That Don’t Count
Every activity you log must be behavior-analytic in nature and directly related to services you provide to specific clients.2Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Fieldwork: Getting It Right The BACB explicitly excludes:
- Billing and coding
- Studying for the certification exam
- Non-behavior-analytic trainings like CPR
- Readings or research unrelated to your current clients
- Attending conferences or ACE events
- Listening to podcasts
- Reviewing hypothetical case studies
- Completing coursework or homework for your university program
- Teaching at RBT Professional Development events
General professional development and administrative tasks, even if your employer requires them, don’t belong on your verification forms.
Total Hours the Form Must Document
The total on your form or across forms needs to meet the requirement for your certification and fieldwork type:
- BCBA, Supervised Fieldwork: 2,000 hours
- BCBA, Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork: 1,500 hours4Behavior Analyst Certification Board. 2027 BCBA Requirements
- BCaBA, Supervised Fieldwork: 1,300 hours
- BCaBA, Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork: 1,000 hours (2026) or 800 hours (2027)5Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BCaBA Handbook
The concentrated option requires more intensive supervision: at least 10% of your fieldwork hours must be supervised contacts, compared to 5% for the standard track.3Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BCBA Handbook The supervision percentage is calculated by dividing your supervised contact hours by your total fieldwork hours, independent and supervised combined.
Signing the Form
You and your supervisor both sign. The BACB accepts electronic signatures and directs applicants to its Acceptable Signatures Policy for which digital methods qualify.6Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Documenting Fieldwork: Helpful Answers to Your FAQs An ink signature on a printed copy that’s then scanned to PDF also works.
Unlike the monthly forms, which must be signed by the last day of the month following the supervision period, the final form has no specific signing deadline. Your supervisor can sign any time after your supervision relationship ends. Don’t let it sit, though. Supervisors change jobs, retire, or let their certification lapse, and tracking someone down months later adds risk to your timeline.
By signing, both parties attest that the information is true, that the fieldwork was completed in compliance with all BACB requirements including ethics standards, and that the supervisor was qualified to supervise for the entire period documented on the form.7Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Individual Final Fieldwork Verification Form
Uploading Through the BACB Gateway
Once signed, upload the form as a PDF through the BACB Gateway portal as part of your certification application. Log into your account, navigate to the application section for your certification level, and follow the prompts to upload the form with the rest of your required documentation. You’ll pay the application fee during this process; the current amount is shown inside the portal.
After you upload and pay, you’ll receive a confirmation. The BACB processes applications in the order received and may take up to 45 days from the date it has all required documentation to complete its review.8Behavior Analyst Certification Board. The Life Cycle of BCBA and BCaBA Applications Track your status through the Gateway. If everything checks out, you’ll be authorized to register for the certification exam.
What Gets Applications Flagged
The BACB selects applications for audit at random, but certain documentation problems make a closer look more likely. A mismatch between your final form totals and the cumulative hours on your monthly forms is probably the most common avoidable mistake. Before submitting, add up every monthly form and confirm the numbers match exactly. Other red flags:
- Missing or unsigned verification forms
- No supervision contract on file
- Non-qualifying activities logged as fieldwork hours
- Supervision contact percentages below the required 5% or 10%
If the Board finds problems, consequences range from a request for additional information to suspension, revocation, or invalidation of your eligibility or certification. The BACB may also submit a Notice of Alleged Violation to its Ethics Department.3Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BCBA Handbook Falsifying hours is treated as an ethics violation for both the trainee and the supervisor who signed off.
Keep Your Copies
You and your supervisor must both keep copies of the completed final form, all Monthly Fieldwork Verification Forms, and supporting documentation for at least seven years.6Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Documenting Fieldwork: Helpful Answers to Your FAQs That obligation continues after you pass the exam. Audits can happen well after certification, and failing to produce documentation when requested can result in disciplinary action against your credential. Store everything digitally in a format you’ll still be able to open years from now. Relying on a former employer’s server or a supervisor’s filing cabinet is a gamble.
If Your Application Is Denied
You have 30 days from the date of the decision to file a written appeal using the Administrative Appeal Request Form, with supporting evidence. Appeals are accepted only in limited circumstances: you properly submitted all required documentation, you received incorrect guidance from the BACB, or a technical issue with your account prevented you from meeting a deadline.9Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Administrative Appeals Denials caused by your own errors, such as outdated contact information, emails filtered to spam, or a supervisor who didn’t complete their portion of the documentation, are not grounds for appeal. The Administrative Appeals Committee’s decision is final, and you cannot submit both an administrative appeal and a compassionate appeal for the same issue.