Where do I verify a BCBA?

The BACB Certificant Registry, linked from the BACB's Verify Certification page. That page calls the registry the primary resource for checking certification status and reportable disciplinary actions, and says the registry is updated daily. Opened 4 November 2026.

What does the registry show?

The registry page lists columns for name, location, country, certification, status, and distance. Status can be filtered to all, active, inactive, or expired. A dagger next to a status means the BACB has published one or more sanctions or actions, which the page says you can open by expanding the row.

Does a BCBA certification mean the person is licensed?

No. The BACB's page on representing certification status says the BACB provides certifications, not licenses. Its consumer resources page says many, but not all, US states require behavior analysts to be licensed. Check the BACB's US licensure page and the state board.

What if the name is not in the registry?

A missing name means that search did not return a certificant record. The BACB also publishes a Falsified Credentials and/or Misrepresentation page naming people it says have misrepresented BACB certification or intellectual property. That page is not a complete list of everyone who is uncertified.

Can I get a written confirmation?

Yes. The Verify Certification page says you can request a verification letter for $25. Letters are emailed within 3 to 5 business days after payment and are not provided for expired certifications. An on-demand printout from a BACB account is available only with an active certification.

How to Verify a BCBA Credential

How to check a BCBA, BCaBA, or RBT in the BACB registry: what the record shows, and what a match does not prove. Opened 4 November 2026.

The BACB Certificant Registry is the record to open before you treat a business card, a website, or a directory listing as proof that someone is a BCBA. The BACB’s Verify Certification page, opened 4 November 2026, calls the registry “the primary resource for quickly and easily verifying an individual’s certification status, and determining whether they have reportable disciplinary actions associated with their certification.” The same page says the registry is updated daily.

This is a lookup guide. It is not a recommendation of any provider, and it does not say who is a good clinician. Certification is a fact you can check. Quality is not on this record.

What you are looking at

The registry page asks you to select a certificant location before it will search. You can filter status to all, active, inactive, or expired. The results table has columns for name, location, country, certification, status, and distance.

A dagger (†) next to a status is the BACB’s mark for a published sanction. The registry page says the dagger “denotes that they have one or more published sanctions or actions from the BACB that can be accessed by expanding the row,” and that more detail is requested from the certificant, not assumed from the mark alone.

The BACB’s consumer resources page says it offers three certifications: Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA), and Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). A BCBA-D is a BCBA who also holds a doctorate; the BACB’s page on representing certification status treats BCBA-D as its own way of stating an active certification, not as a separate license.

Words that are not an active certification

That same representation page, posted 24 January 2023, says certificants “must refer to its status — whether active, inactive, or somewhere in between — accurately.” Its table draws lines that matter when you are reading a bio:

What you see	What the BACB page says
Active certification	Acceptable forms include “someone who has an RBT, BCBA, or BCBA-D certification,” an RBT, BCaBA, BCBA, or BCBA-D certificant, or “a BACB certificant."
"Working toward national certification”	The wording the page gives for an applicant.
”Pending,” “candidate,” “trained,” “passed their competency assessment,” “completed their 40-hour training”	The page says an applicant should not represent themselves this way.
Inactive, including voluntary inactive status, or an RBT or BCaBA with no qualified supervisor on record	Do not represent it as active. If they refer to the certification, the page says they must indicate that it is inactive.

The page also says two things people mix up. “Don’t say that the BACB licensed you.” And “Don’t say that the BACB is your employer.”

What a match does not prove

A registry hit confirms a certification record. It does not do three other jobs.

It is not a license. The representation page says “the BACB provides certifications, not licenses.” Consumer resources says “many, but not all, US states require that behavior analysts are licensed to practice,” and points to the US licensure page. We do not restate a state count here. How to start an ABA clinic records that the BACB table and the CMS toolkit did not produce one total worth repeating. Read the table and the state board. How to become a BCBA is the certification path.

It is not a company credential. Consumer resources says “the BACB certifies people, not companies” and that you cannot report a company to the BACB. A clinic name on a website is not a certificant record.

It is not our organization directory. Pages on this site that list organizations are NPI registry records carrying the Behavior Analyst taxonomy code. Those pages say a registration is an address under a code, not proof a clinic is open, and not a quality rating. Start with your state or search, then check the person in the BACB registry. The questions to ask a provider page is the companion to this one.

If you need it on paper

Verify Certification describes two written options.

Someone with an active certification can print a verification report from their own BACB account: My Certification, then Print Verification Report. The page says that report “is only available with an active certification and will not be available if your certification has expired.”

Anyone else can request a verification letter for a $25 fee. The page says the letter includes the certificant’s name and certification number, confirmation of current status, the reason for an inactive status when that applies, the initial certification date, and the expiration date. “Verification letters are not provided for certifications that are expired.” Letters “are emailed within 3–5 business days after the BACB receives payment of $25 per letter.”

If the search comes up empty

An empty search means that query returned no registry row. It does not, by itself, prove someone is misrepresenting a credential. Names are misspelled, and the page requires a location before it searches.

The BACB does publish a separate Falsified Credentials and/or Misrepresentation page. Opened 4 November 2026, it says the people listed “are not certified by, or affiliated with, the BACB,” and that publication follows reasons such as no usable contact information, no response to a cease-and-desist, or “a documented history of repeated misrepresentation that could pose a threat to consumers.” The page also says its form is for non-certified people misrepresenting certification or for misuse of BACB intellectual property, and that ethics violations by people who are certificants go through a Notice of Alleged Violation instead.

Consumer resources tells families the reporting limit in one sentence: because the BACB certifies people, not companies, “you cannot report a company to us.” A complaint about a certificant who owns or works at a company can still be filed against that person. The same page says the BACB will not tell you whether your provider is violating an ethics requirement.

The Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts is the document those individual reports are measured against. Standard 2.08, quoted on the questions page, is the line that tells a behavior analyst to provide an accurate, current set of credentials on request.