Updated April 2026, this blog is based on the 2027 requirements.
Documenting fieldwork is a critical but sometimes tedious task. It requires strong organizational skills and attention to detail to stay on top of your documentation. In this blog, we answer some frequently asked questions and review scenarios to ensure you understand how best to document your fieldwork experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The following are answers to common questions about documenting supervised fieldwork. These FAQs address common points of confusion and provide practical tips to help you document your experiences accurately and confidently.
Fieldwork Documentation System
A: You and your supervisor can collaborate to develop a documentation system, or you can develop it on your own. However, regardless of who develops and maintains the documentation system, both you and your supervisor are required to keep copies of all relevant documentation.
A: Both you and your supervisor should be tracking your fieldwork hours. At a minimum, your supervisor should review all of your hours for each supervisory period before signing the Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form (M-FVF). Don’t wait until the Final Fieldwork Verification Form (F-FVF) is due to be signed for your supervisor to review all of your hours!
- First, we recommend that you complete the Fieldwork Checklist and Tip Sheet, as it includes helpful guidance on getting started.
- Once you’ve begun your coursework, found a qualified supervisor, signed your supervision contract, and established your documentation system, you’ll likely begin accruing hours by performing both restricted and unrestricted activities. You should meet with your supervisor throughout the month to help ensure that you’re gaining the skills necessary to demonstrate competence in applied behavior analysis. You can find a more comprehensive description of acceptable activities in the relevant BCBA or BCaBA Handbook.
- By the end of the month, you’ll want to double-check that you’ve documented the total number of individual and group supervision hours you accrued and the total duration of observations with clients that took place that month. Don’t forget to document all other relevant information along the way (see the BCBA or BCaBA Handbook for additional information).
- Remember to adjust your supervised fieldwork hours if you did not meet all of the monthly requirements (e.g., percentage of supervision, individual versus group supervision). Review the Requirements for Supervision of Fieldwork Hours section of the BCBA and BCaBA Handbooks for details on how to systematically reduce fieldwork hours in order to meet monthly requirements.
- Note: Concentrated supervised fieldwork cannot be prorated or adjusted.
- At this point, you and your supervisor will review the documentation to confirm that all of the requirements for that month have been met. If your supervisor agrees with the listed attestations, they will sign your M-FVF for that supervisory period. This form must be signed by the last day of the calendar month following the month of supervision, and both you and your supervisor must retain copies for at least 7 years.
- Once your supervision relationship ends—whether because you’ve completed all fieldwork requirements or the supervision contract has concluded—your supervisor will sign your F-FVF. Unlike the M-FVF, the F-FVF can be signed at any time. When you’re ready to apply, you’ll submit this form with your application.
A: You will use the standard M-FVFs and F-FVFs to document both supervised fieldwork and concentrated supervised fieldwork. On the M-FVF, the percentage of hours supervised and the duration of observations with clients determine whether the fieldwork for that month qualifies as supervised fieldwork or concentrated supervised fieldwork. If the higher requirements for concentrated supervised fieldwork are met for the month, the hours may be counted as concentrated supervised fieldwork. On the F-FVF, supervised fieldwork and concentrated supervised fieldwork are documented in separate sections.
Please note that concentrated supervised fieldwork hours have approximately 1.33 times the temporal value of supervised fieldwork hours for those working toward BCBA certification and approximately 1.3 times the temporal value of supervised fieldwork hours for those working toward BCaBA certification. In your personal documentation system, you may want to convert your concentrated supervised fieldwork hours to supervised fieldwork hours to ensure that you’re on track to accrue all required hours for certification. Review the Requirements for Supervision of Fieldwork Hours section of the BCBA or BCaBA Handbooks for more guidance.
A: Yes! You should keep all of your fieldwork documents organized and up to date in anticipation of an audit. If you’re audited, we’ll provide you with an audit log and the time period being audited. With your documentation system already organized, it’ll be easy to complete the audit log. Review the Fieldwork Audit Process visual in the BCBA or BCaBA Handbook for more information.
Monthly and Final Fieldwork Verification Forms
A: Your BACB ID is located in your BACB portal account. If you don’t have a portal account, you’ll need to create one. We strongly recommend creating only one account to prevent delays in processing your application. If you experience any issues accessing your account, use the Contact Us Form for assistance.
A: This one is important! Here’s what you can do:
- If it’s still within one calendar month of the supervisory period, you can create a new version and get all of the necessary signatures.
- If it’s more than one calendar month after the supervisory period has ended, you and your supervisor can make the relevant changes and have everyone involved initial them. Just make sure that your documentation can support the corrected form!
A: No. You should not count those hours, as you do not have written documentation of the supervision. If your fieldwork is selected for an audit and you do not have those forms, those hours will not be accepted, and you may need to complete additional fieldwork.
A: Absolutely. Please see the Acceptable Signatures Policy for more information on acceptable types of digital signatures. When you apply, you’ll receive guidance on where to submit your forms.
A: Although we can’t guarantee that a form will be approved, we strongly encourage you to save your Final Fieldwork Verification Form and then open the saved file to review it. If the file is saved incorrectly and data is missing, your submission will not be accepted. By reviewing the saved file in advance, you can ensure that your form is not missing any information.
A: It depends! Let’s break it down:
- Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form: No. The responsible supervisor is the only one who must be listed on and who must sign the form.
- Final Fieldwork Verification Form: Yes. Anyone from the organization who provided supervision for you must be listed; however, the responsible supervisor should be the only one to sign the form.
A: If you’re receiving supervision from multiple supervisors at one organization, you’ll need a responsible supervisor—an individual who ensures that all of the supervisors’ activities are well organized and coordinated. The person who serves in this role must be identified on the supervision contract and must be able to agree to all of the relevant attestations on the Monthly and Final Fieldwork Verification Forms. For this reason, the responsible supervisor who signs the Final Fieldwork Verification Form must have been qualified to be a responsible supervisor for the entire duration of the supervision provided. Anyone who meets those requirements may act as your responsible supervisor.
A: It depends. If your fieldwork meets the Multiple Supervisors/Settings requirements outlined in the Supervised Fieldwork Requirements section of the BCBA or BCaBA Handbook, you can use this form. For example, a university may coordinate all on- and off-campus activities under one system, or a service organization may have multiple supervisors at different locations providing supervision. The key is that your coordinated fieldwork experience is completed with a clearly defined responsible supervisor who ensures that the activity is well organized and meets all BACB fieldwork requirements.
Common Fieldwork Documentation Scenarios
Here are some common scenarios related to documenting fieldwork. Keep reading to learn how to prevent mistakes and accurately document your fieldwork experiences.
Scenario: Gemma is getting her supervised fieldwork at two locations. One is an ABA clinic where she works part-time for 10 hours a week (40 hours per month). She has two supervisors at that location. The other location is a clinic affiliated with the university she attends, and her supervisor is one of her professors. At this location, she has only one supervisor and is receiving concentrated supervised fieldwork. She also works 10 hours a week at this location (40 hours per month). What does Gemma need to pay close attention to as she completes her M-FVFs for these experiences?
Solution: Gemma should complete an M-FVF for each location and ensure she is meeting all of the fieldwork requirements at each setting. At the ABA clinic, where she has two supervisors, she should complete the 2027 Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form: Multiple Supervisors at One Organization and have the responsible supervisor sign it. At the university clinic, she should complete the 2027 Monthly Fieldwork Verification Form: Individual Supervisor and have her supervisor sign it. Even though she is receiving concentrated supervised fieldwork at this location, she should record the actual fieldwork hours she accrued on the form (as opposed to using the multiplier). However, in her personal ongoing fieldwork documentation, she should document that she is receiving concentrated supervised fieldwork. In her personal documentation system, she may want to consider converting her concentrated supervised fieldwork (by multiplying it by 1.33 if working toward BCBA certification or 1.3 if working toward BCaBA certification) to ensure she is on track to accrue all required hours.
Scenario: Ahmed has been collecting fieldwork hours for two years. He thinks he is close to meeting the requirement of 2,000 hours for BCBA fieldwork. Ahmed has accrued both supervised fieldwork hours and concentrated supervised fieldwork hours. He is currently accruing only supervised fieldwork hours at one location for 20 hours a week. What should he do to determine how close he is to meeting the requirements?
Solution: Ahmed should total up the number of concentrated supervised fieldwork hours he has accrued using the F-FVF(s) he has for those experiences. Then, he should multiply the sum of the concentrated supervised fieldwork hours by 1.33. After that, he should total up the number of supervised fieldwork hours he has using those M-FVFs and F-FVFs. Summing those two totals will give him the total number of hours he has accrued so far.
Ahmed should ensure that the 1.33 multiplier is only used on concentrated supervised fieldwork hours to help him determine if he has met the 2,000-hour requirement. When he documents his hours on M-FVF or F-FVF forms, he should always record the actual hours accrued, not the adjusted total calculated using the multiplier. Finally, he should ensure that his documentation indicates which hours were concentrated supervised fieldwork hours. In the event of an audit, he will have to indicate which hours were adjusted to meet the requirements.
Note: The multiplier for concentrated supervised fieldwork for those working toward BCaBA certification is 1.3.
Scenario: Liam works at a large organization that provides ABA services to children with autism. He has four different supervisors at this organization. They all signed his original supervision contract, but he is confused about who should sign his M-FVF forms and who will sign his F-FVF when the time comes.
Solution: On a monthly basis, Liam only needs to have his responsible supervisor sign the M-FVFs. The responsible supervisor is an individual who ensures that all the supervisors’ activities are well organized and coordinated. On the F-FVF, all of his supervisors must be listed, but only the responsible supervisor is required to sign.
Scenario: Sunita’s supervisor, Alex, typically observes her during a client session about once a week. Every week, Alex observes Sunita working with a different client than the previous week. Alex usually takes notes during the observation and then provides feedback to Sunita during their supervision meetings. Sometimes, if Alex wants Sunita to change something during the observation session, Alex will give feedback to Sunita during the session and then follow up in their supervision meeting. Sunita is worried that Alex sometimes gives feedback during the observation and sometimes later. Can she still count both of those observation sessions toward her fieldwork requirements?
Solution: Yes, observations with a client can include feedback or they can simply be observations, and feedback can be provided later. The difference between the two is how Sunita records the observation. If Alex only observes Sunita with a client and does not provide feedback during the session, Sunita should count that time as independent fieldwork and observation with a client. If Alex provides feedback to Sunita during the observation and they discuss the feedback, then Sunita can count that time as supervisor-trainee contact and observation with a client.
Wrapping Up
Documenting fieldwork is vital to show that you are meeting the BACB’s requirements. We hope these FAQs and scenarios about fieldwork documentation helped answer your questions about accurately documenting your fieldwork experiences.