UTSA ABA program receives international accreditation, becoming one of 28 worldwide

OCTOBER 1, 2024 — The UTSA master’s degree program in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is now fully accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Accreditation Board. This recognition validates that UTSA students will receive an education of the highest quality as they prepare to become Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA).

Professionals in the field of applied behavior analysis work predominately with individuals who have autism and developmental disabilities, using the science of human behavior to increase quality of life in areas such as communication, behavior and social skills.

The demand for BCBAs is growing across the nation as autism diagnoses increase along with the demand for services. According to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, the demand for BCBAs has increased each year since 2010, with a 14% increase from 2022 to 2023. This is especially true in Texas, which has the third highest demand for behavior analysts and fourth highest demand for assistant behavior analysts in the country.

“Accreditation speaks to the quality of our program. It signals we are among the 28 highest quality programs in the world.”

The UTSA ABA program will be the third accredited program in Texas, the only accredited program in the South-Central region of Texas and one of 28 accredited programs worldwide.

“Accreditation speaks to the quality of our program,” said Leslie Neely, associate professor in the UTSA Department of Educational Psychology. “It signals we are among the 28 highest quality programs in the world.”

To date, behavior analysis programs did not have to be accredited to produce BCBA-eligible graduates. However, a new ruling mandates that by 2032, all BCBA candidates must earn their degree from an accredited master’s program. This change ensures that behavior analysis professionals will come from high-quality programs which stress experiential learning.

The M.S. in Behavior Analysis program at UTSA is uniquely designed to include fieldwork experiences, course work and research opportunities for graduate students. The comprehensive program allows students to complete their fieldwork hours at a variety of sites to gain experience in providing behavior-analytic services across different settings, populations and modalities. Alternatively, for students that need full time employment, the focused concentration allows students to work full time at a single university-approved site to complete all 2,000 field work hours.

During their time in the program, students are paired with full-time faculty members and doctoral-level BCBAs who mentor them through a thesis-equivalent research project and paper that can be published in an ABA related academic journal. Students receive mentorship from faculty members who have research expertise in growing areas of the field, including the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to access and deliver ABA services, reducing severe behavior concerns, and increasing employment opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities.

“To date, all of our students have been paid for their fieldwork experiences, and we have a fieldwork coordinator who guides students in these placements throughout their two years in the program,” said Hannah MacNaul, assistant professor in the UTSA Department of Educational Psychology.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in grant-funded projects.

“Ultimately, we are passionate about the quality of our training program and believe that cost should not serve as a barrier for students wanting to become Board Certified Behavior Analysts,” said MacNaul.

Marie Kirkpatrick, an assistant professor in the UTSA Department of Educational Psychology, said the ABA program at UTSA is highly regarded throughout the industry for the way it prepares students to enter the workforce.

“Our students typically have a job offer with competitive pay before they even graduate and take their boards,” she said.

Roberta Carrillo ’23 chose UTSA because it provided the essential resources to graduate and achieve certification through the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

“I loved that UTSA had its own university clinic for students to complete their 2,000 hours of practice for certification,” said Carrillo, who completed the comprehensive concentration and is an independent BCBA in Monterrey, Mexico.

The San Antonio Applied Behavior Analysis Clinic is where UTSA students in the comprehensive concentration work to complete their fieldwork hours. The clinic is a collaborative partnership between UTSA, the Autism Treatment Center and CHRISTUS Children’s Hospital. It serves children and adolescents aged 3 to 16 with autism.

Carrillo entered the workforce prepared to manage a variety of clients and adapt to different environments.

“During the program, you have to complete different competencies in order to graduate: working with severe behavior clients, working with teens, working with toddlers, in the home setting, in the clinic, in schools and so forth,” said Carrillo.

Kirkpatrick has already noticed the effects of starting the accreditation process early.

“There’s a lot of rigor in accreditation that we are excited about, such as completing a research project,” Kirkpatrick said. “We piloted this process last year with our students, and they produced some really great projects, including a few that have already been published, are under review, or being finalized for publication.”

Faculty of the ABA program, which is housed in the UTSA College of Education and Human Development, expect that accreditation will attract highly qualified applicants to UTSA in larger numbers.

Several students in the program are from Texas and local to San Antonio, but with just 28 accredited ABA programs available worldwide, UTSA’s program has the opportunity to attract even greater interest.

“From what we know, other accredited programs receive a good amount of interest from out-of-state applicants, and we’re hoping to see that as well,” said Kirkpatrick.

— Katelyn Juarez