LOS ANGELES — Oct. 19, 2021 — Today, BHCOE, the international accrediting body for ABA, announced the introduction of the first and only standards for organizations and centers that train behavior analysts during their on-site practica. These new quality standards will benefit supervising providers, universities and students by aligning classroom education with on-site experiential learning. BHCOE Practica Standards for Accreditation were developed in collaboration with universities offering degrees or certificate programs in applied behavior analysis.
“BHCOE cares deeply about the quality of training that students receive when earning their hours towards certification. BHCOE hopes that by creating standards for quality practica sites, we can serve as a partner to universities and cultivate an environment that helps students thrive,” says Sara Gershfeld Litvak, BHCOE’s chief executive officer.
BHCOE Practica Accreditation is for ABA organizations who train clinicians as part of their service delivery model, hundreds of whom BHCOE already evaluates and many who already hold BHCOE Full Accreditation. The new Practica Accreditation Standards include BHCOE’s 2021 Accreditation Standards but go beyond in their critical requirements specific to the practices of experience supervisors and trainees. BHCOE Practica Accreditation can be sought as an add-on to BHCOE Full Accreditation or as a stand-alone accreditation.
The Practica Accreditation is granted for a period of one year to ensure its requirements remain current with certification and licensing. University centers that provide behavior analytic training experience for individuals seeking practical experience hours for certification and licensing as behavior analysts are also welcome to pursue the accreditation.
“BHCOE developed the Practica Accreditation in response to universities who seek to ensure the quality of the practica experiences that ABA trainees receive and to align on-site learning with best practices in supervision,” says Ellie Kazemi, PhD, BCBA-D, BHCOE’s chief science officer. “With the introduction of BHCOE’s Practica Accreditation, ABA now has quality indicators for practica that will support universities in placing students, providers in attracting them, and serve as a guide for emerging behavior analysts’ on-site experience.”
The accreditation process includes a review of the organization’s policies and procedures, organizational systems, clinical standards, patient outcomes, and social validity measures as well as the satisfaction of experience supervisors, trainees, behavior technicians overseen by trainees, and graduated trainees. BHCOE uses several qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct these evaluations including semi-structured interviews, surveys, observations, document review and additional analyses to assess the quality indicators of organizations that provide service as ABA practica sites. Organizations can find out more about Practica Accreditation at BHCOE.org.
About BHCOE Accreditation
Behavioral Health Center of Excellence® (BHCOE®) is an international accrediting body created to meet accreditation needs specific to the delivery of applied behavior analysis (ABA) services. BHCOE’s accreditation requirements undergo regular review according to international standards for organizations that grant accreditations. Content experts annually review all BHCOE requirements and survey content. BHCOE Accreditation® is a certification given to an ABA organization when it has demonstrated and continues to meet clinical and administrative standards as determined by an independent third-party evaluator. BHCOE offers Preliminary Accreditation, Full Accreditation, Telehealth Accreditation and Practica Accreditation.
About BHCOE
Behavioral Health Center of Excellence® (BHCOE®) is an organization within the autism field that is dedicated to leading evidence-based quality improvement of equitable Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) through its creation of performance-based standards for providers and learning and improvement resources for all stakeholders and as the only international accreditor for the field. To learn more about BHCOE, visit www.bhcoe.org.
Contact:
Anshula Ahluwalia
news@bhcoe.org
847-372-9091