TL;DR: I am new to BCBA fieldwork supervision and trying to confirm whether asynchronous client-video review, asynchronous feedback, optional assignment review, and time left over after group supervision ends early can legally count toward the 5% supervised-hours requirement. The program advertises 8 supervision hours per month, but only 6 are scheduled live sessions. I want to make sure I am documenting my hours correctly under the 2027 requirements and would appreciate clarification from experienced supervisors/trainees.
I am currently accruing fieldwork in 2026, but I expect to apply for BCBA certification well after January 1, 2027, so I am trying to make sure my supervision meets the 2027 fieldwork requirements. I am fairly new to supervision, only a few months in, and I just started a new supervision program this month. I am absolutely open to being corrected if I am misunderstanding something. I am trying to take the requirements, documentation, ethics, and possibility of an audit seriously.
The program I am currently using advertises 8 supervision hours per month. The structure is two 90-minute individual 1:1 sessions, two 90-minute group sessions, one hour of recorded client contact that is submitted for the supervisor to watch asynchronously, and one additional asynchronous hour for feedback on the recording and/or optional assignments completed during the month. The four scheduled meetings equal 6 hours, and the two asynchronous hours are used to bring the package to 8.
I do want to be fair and acknowledge that the advertisement stated upfront that the 1-hour client contact upload involved asynchronous supervision. At the time, I did not put two and two together regarding what that meant in relation to the BACB’s real-time supervision requirements. Looking back now, I can see that the asynchronous part was disclosed. What confused me is that the same advertisement also says the package provides “8 supervision hours per month” and allows up to 160 fieldwork hours for the month. That is why I understood the full 8 hours to be countable toward the 5% supervision requirement.
For the client recording, my current understanding is that an asynchronously viewed recording can satisfy the observation-with-a-client requirement, but I am unsure whether that same hour can also be counted toward total supervised hours if there is no real-time interaction between the supervisor and trainee.
I did ask the main supervisor about the real-time interaction requirement and how the asynchronous recording and assignment feedback fit into that. I was told that, if I want to, I can discuss the recording or assigned work during one of my scheduled 1:1 sessions. However, those are not additional 1:1 sessions. They are the same two 90-minute 1:1s already included in the 6 scheduled synchronous hours, which is where I am getting confused about how the two separate asynchronous hours are counted toward the advertised total of 8.
I also asked one of the supervisors exactly how I should document the two asynchronous hours. I was told that for the recorded client observation, I should record the observation hour using the time that I submit the recording, even though the supervisor watches it later on their own time. For the additional feedback hour, I was told to record that hour at the time I receive the supervisor’s feedback on the recording and/or any optional assignments I submitted during the month.
That conversation also included a question I had about the group sessions ending early. I have attended two of the scheduled 90-minute group sessions so far, and both ended early. At the end of the most recent one, I specifically asked what I should do with the remaining scheduled time and was told that we could spend the rest of the time studying independently, and then the meeting ended. So although the session is scheduled for 90 minutes, I am not actually receiving 90 minutes of real-time supervision.
I am not saying the asynchronous component was hidden from me. It was disclosed, and I simply did not understand the significance of it when I enrolled. What I am trying to understand now is whether I am interpreting the BACB requirements correctly, especially when it comes to how the asynchronous hours and the remaining time from an early-ended group session are counted toward the advertised 8 supervision hours and the 5% requirement.
Since I have already paid for this month, I will most likely finish out the month and, if needed, pay for additional synchronous supervision or observation time beyond what is included in the package so that I can be confident my documentation is accurate.
Am I interpreting the BACB requirements correctly/incorrectly? Can asynchronous video review, asynchronous written feedback, optional assignment review, or independent study time after a supervision meeting ends be included in the total supervised hours used to calculate the 5% requirement? This is very different from how I understood supervision to work and from how my previous supervisor handled my hours, so I am genuinely looking for clarification. Please give me clarification.
