When a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) sits down to design your child’s treatment plan, runs a parent-training session, or supervises the RBT who works with your family each week, they are bound by a single document: the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, published by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB).
This is the official, enforceable rulebook for every BCBA, BCaBA, and applicant in the United States. It is not a suggestion, a marketing slogan, or a list of best practices. It is the standard a behavior analyst must meet to keep their certification. Violating it can result in suspension or revocation.
The current version was published by the BACB in 2020 and took effect on January 1, 2022, replacing the older 2014 Professional and Ethical Compliance Code.
Below is a complete, plain-English walkthrough of the Code, organized exactly the way the BACB organizes it: four core principles, then six numbered sections.
Quick Facts About the BCBA Ethics Code
- Official name: Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts
- Published by: Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB)
- Year published: 2020
- Effective date: January 1, 2022
- Who must follow it: All BCBAs, BCaBAs, applicants for those credentials, and individuals enrolled in BACB-approved coursework
- Structure: An introduction, a glossary, four core principles, and six numbered sections of enforceable standards
- Enforcement: Violations are reviewed under the BACB’s Code-Enforcement Procedures and can result in sanctions up to and including loss of certification
If a provider tells you their BCBA “follows ABA ethics,” the document they are referring to is this one.
The Four Core Principles
Before the six sections, the Code lays out four foundational principles that underlie every standard. A BCBA must:
- Benefit others. Treatment exists to improve the client’s life — not to make a clinic’s numbers look good, not to please a referring school, and not to be convenient for staff.
- Treat others with compassion, dignity, and respect. This applies to clients, families, supervisees, colleagues, and the broader community.
- Behave with integrity. Be honest. Don’t misrepresent credentials, data, billing, or outcomes. Follow through on commitments.
- Ensure their competence. Only practice within what your education, training, and supervised experience actually qualify you to do.
These principles are not decorative. When a BCBA faces a hard call that the Code doesn’t explicitly address, they are required to use these four principles as their decision-making compass.
The Six Sections of the BCBA Ethics Code
Section 1.0 — Responsibility as a Professional
This is the personal-conduct section. It governs how a BCBA carries themselves as a professional, regardless of who is in the room.
Key obligations include:
- Being truthful in all professional activities — no misrepresenting qualifications, services, results, or affiliations.
- Conforming to legal and professional requirements, including state licensure laws (Maryland and Virginia both license behavior analysts).
- Practicing within their scope of competence and obtaining the training or supervision needed before expanding into new areas.
- Maintaining competence through continuing education.
- Cultural responsiveness and diversity — actively working to understand how culture, language, identity, and lived experience affect the people they serve. (This is a significant addition that did not appear in earlier versions of the Code.)
- Non-discrimination and non-harassment in all professional contexts.
- Accountability — owning mistakes, correcting them promptly, and not blaming clients, families, or supervisees for the analyst’s own errors.
For families, Section 1.0 is the answer to the question, “What kind of person should my child’s BCBA be?”
Section 2.0 — Responsibility in Practice
If Section 1.0 is about who the analyst is, Section 2.0 is about how they work.
Key obligations include:
- Providing effective treatment — interventions must be likely to benefit the client.
- Basing decisions on the best available scientific evidence, not on personal preference or what’s trendy.
- Considering medical needs — if a behavior could have a medical cause (pain, sleep disruption, GI issues, seizure activity), the BCBA must rule that out before assuming it’s a behavioral issue.
- Protecting confidentiality of client information, including in conversations, paper records, and digital systems.
- Maintaining accurate records of services delivered, data collected, and clinical decisions made.
- Documenting and addressing conflicts of interest rather than ignoring them.
- Using behavior-change procedures that minimize the risk of harm and prioritizing reinforcement-based approaches over restrictive ones.
This is the section that governs the quality of the actual therapy your child receives.
Section 3.0 — Responsibility to Clients and Stakeholders
Section 3.0 is the section that most directly protects families. It defines the BCBA’s duties to the client (your child) and to stakeholders (parents, guardians, schools, and other parties involved in care).
Key obligations include:
- Identifying stakeholders clearly at the start of services and clarifying everyone’s role.
- Obtaining informed consent and assent — explaining the assessment, the proposed treatment, the risks, the alternatives, and the right to refuse or withdraw, in language stakeholders actually understand.
- Only accepting clients within the BCBA’s scope of competence and the agency’s ability to serve them well.
- Conducting appropriate assessments before designing a behavior plan — no copy-pasted programs.
- Designing individualized behavior-change programs based on assessment data.
- Coordinating with other providers (pediatricians, speech therapists, OTs, schools) when doing so serves the client.
- Avoiding multiple relationships that could compromise judgment (for example, a BCBA shouldn’t take on a close friend’s child as a client).
- Responsible discontinuation and transition — services can’t be ended abruptly or for the wrong reasons. The BCBA must plan transitions, write transition summaries, and refer when appropriate.
If you have ever wondered, “What does my child’s BCBA actually owe us?” — the answer is in Section 3.0.
Section 4.0 — Responsibility to Supervisees and Trainees
BCBAs are responsible not only for their own work but also for the work of the people they supervise — particularly RBTs and BCBA candidates accruing fieldwork hours. (For a deeper dive into how BCBA supervision requirements work in practice, see our companion guide.)
Key obligations include:
- Designing effective supervision systems with appropriate frequency, content, and feedback.
- Supervising within scope — a BCBA should not supervise areas of practice they themselves are not competent in.
- Setting clear expectations for supervisees in writing.
- Evaluating supervisee performance objectively and providing real, useful feedback.
- Maintaining supervision records that meet BACB requirements.
- Addressing supervisee performance problems promptly rather than letting them slide.
- Not exploiting supervisees, financially, professionally, or otherwise.
For families, Section 4.0 matters because your child’s RBT is supervised by a BCBA. The quality of that supervision is what keeps the RBT’s day-to-day work safe and effective.
Section 5.0 — Responsibility in Public Statements
Section 5.0 governs what a BCBA can say in public: in advertising, on social media, on a clinic website, in interviews, and in client testimonials.
Key obligations include:
- Truthful and non-deceptive advertising of services, credentials, and outcomes.
- Not soliciting unsolicited testimonials from current clients, who may feel pressured to comply.
- Being responsible for statements made on their behalf by employees, marketing firms, or platforms representing them.
- Distinguishing personal opinions from professional positions when speaking publicly.
- Using social media responsibly, including respecting client confidentiality (no posting identifiable client content, even in a “success story” frame, without proper consent).
- Citing sources accurately when sharing research or claims.
If a clinic’s marketing seems too good to be true like “guaranteed results,” cherry-picked testimonials from children currently in treatment, and exaggerated credentials, Section 5.0 is the standard being violated.
Section 6.0 — Responsibility in Research
The final section governs BCBAs who conduct research, publish studies, or participate in research as part of their work. Most parents will not interact with this section directly, but it shapes the field’s evidence base, which in turn shapes every treatment plan written under Section 2.0.
Key obligations include:
- Conforming to research-conduct requirements, including IRB review where applicable.
- Obtaining informed consent for research that is separate from consent for treatment.
- Disclosing conflicts of interest in research, including funding sources.
- Reporting research accurately, including unfavorable results.
- Sharing data appropriately and giving proper credit to collaborators.
- Not plagiarizing or misrepresenting authorship.
This section is what allows you to trust that “the evidence base for ABA” actually means something.
Why This Matters for Maryland and Virginia Families
Maryland and Virginia both regulate behavior analysts at the state level, but state licensure laws sit on top of the BACB Ethics Code — they don’t replace it. In fact, Virginia statute explicitly requires every Licensed Behavior Analyst to “conduct his professional practice in accordance with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board ethics code for behavior analysts.” When you choose a BCBA-led provider in either state, you are choosing someone who is accountable under:
- State licensure law (administered by the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists or the Virginia Board of Medicine)
- The BACB Ethics Code
- Their employer’s internal clinical and ethical standards
That layered accountability is the reason ABA, when delivered well, is one of the most carefully regulated forms of pediatric therapy. It’s also why it’s reasonable for you, as a parent, to ask your child’s BCBA direct questions — about their scope of competence, their supervision practices, their use of informed consent and assent, how they coordinate with your child’s other providers, and how they discontinue services when goals are met. Every one of those questions maps directly onto a numbered section above.
Looking for the RBT Ethics Code?
RBTs (Registered Behavior Technicians) are the team members who deliver most of your child’s direct one-on-one sessions. They follow a separate, shorter code written specifically for technician-level practice, and it is supervised by the BCBA whose obligations are described above.
For a full walkthrough of the RBT Ethics Code, read our companion guide: Mastering the RBT Ethics Code: A Comprehensive Guide for Behavior Technicians.
As the field evolves, ongoing education, supervision, and advocacy are crucial for professionals, especially when examining BCBA vs. RBT roles. Behavior analysts must apply ethical principles across research and service delivery to prioritize clients’ needs and rights.
The BCBA Ethics Code is not a marketing document. It is the enforceable standard behind every clinical decision your child’s behavior analyst makes. Knowing how it is structured (four principles, six sections) gives you a real vocabulary for evaluating providers, asking questions, and recognizing when something feels off.
At Move Up ABA, every BCBA on our Maryland and Virginia clinical teams practices under this Code. If you’d like to talk about what ethical, individualized ABA looks like for your family, reach out to our team, we’re glad to walk through it with you.
Sources:
https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ethics-Code-for-Behavior-Analysts-240830-a.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10891010/
https://health.maryland.gov/bopc/Pages/analysts.aspx
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter29/section54.1-2957.16/
https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/Boards/Medicine/AbouttheBoard/RegulatedProfessions/BehaviorAnalyst/
