Nevada Autism Community Needs Your Help

Our state is in desperate need of solution for registering behavior technicians! Below is the process for obtaining the RBT certification: Complete 40-hr RBT course online Seek BCBA supervisor from local ABA provider Complete a state background check for BCBA supervisor Complete Competency Assessment with BCBA Complete Proctored Exam – Once this exam is completed applicant is an active RBT HOWEVER… in the state of NV RBTs cannot work until they receive a registration certificate from the NV ABA Board adding additional steps to the process Complete NVABA application Complete fingerprints for FBI Background clearance for State Get NVABA registration certificate Apply for a job Usually, this entire process would take about 1-3 months. In 2019-2021, the process took anywhere from 2-4 months due to the pandemic. Now the process is at a halt. With the passing of SB217, effective October 1, 2021, the Nevada Board of Applied Behavior Analysis (NVABAB) now oversees the treatment of children with autism as its own independent board. We are excited for the board to be independent and we know that they have done everything in their power to ensure a smooth transition. Although everyone involved has worked extremely hard, the new board has not yet received clearance to process fingerprints causing all pending applications to be on hold until approval comes in. The following is taken from the NVABAB website. https://nvababoard.org/ The organizational changes occurring with NVABAB require approval before prints can be processed under the new structure. NVABAB will continue to accept applications for RBT, LaBA and LBA registration and licenses, but the fingerprint processing component will delay the approval of these applications. Once FBI approval is received, NVABAB will be authorized to once again process background checks for applicants. Approval is expected to be received by December 1, 2021. When prints can be processed again by NVABAB, please note it can take an additional 3-6 weeks from the time prints are submitted to the Nevada Department of Public Safety before results are received. We apologize for this inconvenience! Our autism community is already short-staffed. We cannot afford to go 3-5 months without the ability to bring more staff to our field which is a tragedy to the children, providers, businesses and Nevada economy. I am urging legislation to look at solutions to protect our children and providers so they can continue to hire new RBTs to provide our community with the services we need and deserve I appreciate any consideration on this matter!