Become an RBT. Start a career that counts.
Registered Behavior Technician is the fastest legitimate door into a clinical career: no degree required, certification in weeks, and work where you watch a child gain skills you helped build.
Registered Behavior Technician certification in four steps
1
40-hour training
An online or in-person course covering the RBT Task List — ethics, measurement, skill acquisition, behavior reduction. Doable in 1–2 focused weeks.
2
Competency assessment
A BCBA watches you demonstrate the core skills, live or by video. When you work with us, your supervisor runs this with you — it's part of the job, not an extra hurdle.
3
Apply + background check
Submit your application to the certification board with your training certificate and assessment, and clear a standard background check.
4
Pass the RBT exam
85 questions at a testing center or online. Pass it and you're a Registered Behavior Technician — credentialed and hire-ready nationwide.
RBT salary: how the pay actually works
What moves the number
Four things, in order: your state and metro, your experience, your setting (in-home routes often pay differently than schools and daycares), and your hours mix. Certification itself is the entry ticket — experience compounds from there.
Typical pay in your state
We’re assembling verified, state-by-state pay data for this section — no made-up numbers, ever. In the meantime, read how ABA pay actually works — the hourly rate matters far less than how many hours you get paid for.
The raise built into the job
RBT hours count toward BCaBA and BCBA fieldwork requirements. The biggest raise in this field isn’t a negotiation — it’s the next credential, and your work here moves you toward it.
RBT questions, straight answers
A Registered Behavior Technician is the certified front-line role in ABA. You work one-on-one with a child, running the teaching programs a BCBA designed and collecting the data that steers them. It is the entry point to the field: no degree required, certification in weeks.
An RBT delivers the therapy; a BCBA designs and owns it. The BCBA holds a master’s degree, assesses the child, writes the treatment plan and supervises the RBTs running it. RBT is a certification you can earn in weeks; BCBA takes graduate coursework plus supervised fieldwork — and RBT hours can count toward it.
No. The requirements are: be at least 18, have a high school diploma or equivalent, pass a background check, finish the 40-hour training, complete a competency assessment, and pass the RBT exam.
Many people finish in four to eight weeks: the 40-hour training can be done in one to two weeks, then the competency assessment and exam scheduling take a few more. Working for a provider like us during the process means you’re earning while you certify.
You work one-on-one with a child, running teaching programs and play-based sessions a BCBA designed — building communication, daily-living skills, and easier ways through hard moments. You collect data as you go, and that data steers the plan.
The opposite — it’s the standard first rung of a clinical career. RBT experience counts toward the supervised fieldwork you need to become a BCaBA or BCBA, and we structure supervision so your job hours move you forward.
There are three separate costs, and job ads rarely separate them: the 40-hour training, the certification board’s application fee, and the exam fee — plus a background check and, in some states, a separate registration. Most people never pay the training cost themselves, because employers run it during onboarding; we do. Before you pay for a course out of pocket, ask any employer you are talking to whether they cover it, because the answer is usually yes.
Almost none of it is technical — you are not expected to know ABA yet. Expect to be asked: why you want to work with children, how you would handle a child who is screaming and refusing to work, what you would do if a parent asked you a clinical question you couldn’t answer, how you feel about writing notes after every session, and whether you can commit to the same after-school hours every week.
The consistent-hours question is the one that decides most hires. Sessions are scheduled around a child’s routine, so reliability matters more than experience. Ask your own questions back — guaranteed hours, paid drive time and supervision are all fair game, and an employer who dodges them has told you something.
It depends entirely on what you want out of it, and the honest answer splits in two. As a stepping stone it is genuinely excellent: no degree required, certified in weeks, and it is the standard route into a field where the master’s-level credential above it is in real demand. People who go in knowing they want to become a BCBA almost never regret it.
As an indefinite job it is harder, and the field’s turnover reflects that: part-time hours that can be cancelled, driving between clients, emotionally demanding work, and pay that is capped by what payers reimburse. What separates a good RBT job from a bad one is guaranteed hours, paid drive time, and a supervisor who is actually available. Ask about all three before you accept anything.
Start certified. Start here.
Tell us your state and where you are in the process — even if that’s “step zero.”
Keep reading
RBT certification
The 40-hour training, the competency assessment and the exam.
Competency assessment
The part you can't do alone, and how it actually runs.
How ABA pay works
Why paid hours matter more than the advertised hourly rate.
The BCBA path
Where this leads if you want the clinical credential.
Open roles
Where we're hiring right now.
What is ABA therapy?
The field you'd be joining, explained plainly.