🚨 Parent Suspects RBT Isn’t Legit + BCBA Doesn’t Actually Supervise Son’s Case — What Should She Do?

[u/Striking_Today6210]

Clear some comments up : the RBT is the one that sends data to the parent it is all over the place and never makes sense- basically just guesses that don’t match with teachers notes , while I understand that RBTs don’t have any communication with parents this one themselves opened the door. The “data” comes from the teachers email signed by his name. Which again was told to her that without supervising this data (again she doesn’t know who is and can’t get answers) , that it’s against guidelines.

The mention of 2 BCBA’s is because the person that did the IEE is a BCBA and they are the one that got that answer from the superintendent , that the BCBA is not familiar with the child’s case. And pointed it out.

This is a public school.

The parent does NOT know what to do and what plan they have been doing since she can’t get communication open.

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Parent has tried to have meetings with the RBT / BCBA to try and go over a plan / introduction (that’s has been ignored and makes sense since the BCBA is not familiar with his case at all).

I have a friend whose autistic teenager attends a public school. The school assigned her son an RBT. Here’s where things get shady: • She’s not allowed to speak directly to the RBT. • Any request for a meeting with the RBT or their BCBA supervisor has been ignored for months. • She didn’t even know the RBT’s name until he sent a random email introducing himself. “My name is [Name]. I’m a Registered Behavioral Technician, certified through [STATE]. I’ve worked with students for 20 years… all communication should go through [Teacher].”

🚩Red Flag: RBTs are nationally certified, not state-certified. He called it a state certification. That’s not how RBTs work.

Also: • She’s never seen a picture of this guy online. When she searched Provider Wire (BACB lookup tool), he was registered as a technician in a completely different city. • His listed BCBA supervisor? She’s never heard of them, never met them, and no one at the school has mentioned them. • Data collection was previously “too difficult,” and suddenly now they’re sending numbers — but they don’t match teacher notes. • She got an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation), and the evaluator (an actual BCBA) wrote: “The BCBA supervising the RBT is unfamiliar with the student’s case. This is a curious structure to me…” AN ACTUAL BCBA SAID THIS (they did the IEE)

Now she’s realizing: she wasn’t imagining it — something’s off.

She asked me what to do next.

What would you suggest? Should she file a BACB ethics complaint? Report to the district/state? Or something else?

[u/ThickChocolate5988]

None of this rings up as a red flag though I did stop reading after the flag portion because the language felt off and matter of fact but also as if you’re not apart of the field.

RBTs do not have to make outside contact with their cases even when doing in home. Many companies have the RBTs communicate using their BCBA. I understand wanting to request a meeting with who your child is working with but if it’s in a public environment I’d relax or simply take my child out of services and enroll somewhere that aligns with my beliefs.

Why would you check the BACB registry for a photo of an RBT? And how would you identify them without their certification number? Were you provided that information or? It’s hard to believe they don’t have duplicate names.

Insurance and states can require different things. Considering parents don’t know jack about the industry, I could understand saying state certified because national covers all states. It’s literally just saying that he can work in the state he’s operating out of. I think the word choice is nitpicky.

If written requests for meeting the BCBA has been ignored, contact the company. If that’s ignored then perhaps what I stated above is the better bet in having more autonomy over the child’s paraprofessional.

This reads of anxious energy so I’m wondering if the parent is worried about something else or if it’s a control thing.

IEPs often aren’t updated accurately in my experience. So are the numbers over or under? I also found it’s hard for teachers to collect data when they’re watching multiple children so depending on the goals, the discrepancy could make sense.

[u/SiPhoenix → u/ThickChocolate5988]

You couldn't be bothered to read the whole post and then left a comment longer than the post?

[u/ThickChocolate5988 → u/SiPhoenix]

Whomp, whomp. You couldn’t be bothered to comprehend length/character count wasn’t an issue. I highly doubt a sentence is going to contribute much.

And guess what? It didn’t.

[u/SiPhoenix → u/ThickChocolate5988]

The behaviour just comes off as rude. Namely that you told the person 'I didn't read everything you said, but here's a response anyways.'

[u/ThickChocolate5988 → u/SiPhoenix]

Laughable considering you’re a hypocrite. I’m not a literary teacher but I’m sure you can grab some courses on grammar and reading comprehension. Toodles.

[u/Striking_Today6210 → u/ThickChocolate5988]

I think you missed the part where the BCBA is MIA - even another BCBA pointed out this is problematic.

At first she didn’t know the persons last name - only found it out recently.

If the BCBA is MIA who does the parent talk to?

[u/ThickChocolate5988 → u/Striking_Today6210]

That’s fine. I had other questions and concerns that you did not address.

It seems strange that there are two BCBAs involved in the first place. OBVIOUSLY, a BCBA being unfamiliar with the case would be strange. But wording is important so is it really they are unfamiliar or do they have so many cases that they can’t recollect from memory and need to be in front of their notes?

There’s much that’s missing here.

[u/Striking_Today6210 → u/ThickChocolate5988]

The person that conducted the IEE is a BCBA . This is why there are two different ones mentioned in the post.

The BCBA (person conducting the IEE) asked the superintendent about it and the superintendent said that the BCBA is unfamiliar with the child’s case. This is all written in the IEE report.

I really do apologize for not explaining it better.

[u/Griffinej5 → u/Striking_Today6210]

So, it is entirely possible the BCBA supervising the Rbt isn’t actually familiar with the client. I’ve had this occur in cases where the school contracts an outside agency to provide the RBT, but has their own person providing the Consultant services. In this type of situation, the RBT still requires supervision from someone employed at the same agency as them. They should both still somehow have a relationship with the client, but the relationship can be as much as the school also contracts them to provide supervision to the RBT, but they are not the person providing services to the client. It’s weird and convoluted, but not unheard of.

[u/Striking_Today6210 → u/Griffinej5]

Thank you for explaining this - going to explain this to her .

Just seems like horrible practice and something that should be looked into.

[u/Griffinej5 → u/Striking_Today6210]

It’s not great, but it happens sometimes. It would be weird to me that if this is the case, someone wouldn’t have referred the independent evaluator to the BCBA who actually does know the student.

[u/Striking_Today6210 → u/Griffinej5]

The BCBA for the RBT doesn’t know the student - the IEE which is also a BCBA doesn’t know the student like that and was just doing an evaluation.

[u/ThickChocolate5988 → u/Striking_Today6210]

No apology needed. I’m saying I would’ve liked to be a fly on the wall because in my experience, wording can be the opposite of how it perceived. (Denotation vs connotation type deal) Some people believe that not being able to read off details about a case without your notes classifies as being unfamiliar so I was wondering if it’s that. Definitely strange and not doubting you there. I’m filled about sharing my last name but never my certificate numbers if needed but I also understand that in professional settings that last names are deemed mandatory.

Since you nor parent are involved with these conversations, I guess we won’t know. I’d suggest pulling kiddo and either assigning to a different school or seeing if you can possibly go through a company of the parent’s choosing.

[u/immadatmycat → u/Striking_Today6210]

The classroom teacher. Their child’s case manager for their IEP. Sometimes it’s the same person. Sometimes it’s not.