How to Fill Out the BACB RBT Certification Application Attestation Form

The RBT Certification Application Attestation Form is a one-page document that a qualified certificant, not the applicant, signs to confirm that a Registered Behavior Technician candidate meets the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s baseline eligibility requirements: age, education, a criminal background check, and an abuse registry check.¹ It has to be signed within 90 days before the applicant pays for the RBT certification application, and the applicant uploads it through their BACB account together with the completed Initial Competency Assessment.² The form itself is short. Most application delays come from timing errors or from checks that don’t match what the form claims.

What Must Be True Before the Form Is Signed

The Attesting Certificant is personally vouching for each item on the form, so all of the underlying eligibility requirements need to be satisfied and documented before signing.

The applicant is at least 18 years old at the time of application.²
The applicant has at least a high school diploma or equivalent.²
The applicant has completed and passed a criminal background check no more than 180 days before paying for the application. The check must be comparable to what’s required for home health aides, child care professionals, and teachers in the community where services will be provided.²
The applicant has completed and passed an abuse registry check within the same 180-day window, under the same comparability standard. If the state or province does not maintain a registry, or the information is unavailable to the organization, the certificant may mark it “Unavailable” on the form.¹

If the organization uses a continuous monitoring system for background checks rather than a one-time check, the date of the most recent result may be entered on the form even if that date falls outside the 180-day window.²

Two other requirements sit alongside the attestation but do not appear on the form itself: the applicant must have completed a BACB-approved 40-hour training in no fewer than 5 and no more than 180 days,³ and must have passed the Initial Competency Assessment within 90 days of submitting the application.²

What Goes on the Form

The form is completed entirely by the Attesting Certificant. It has three sections and a signature block.¹

Section A: RBT Applicant Information

The certificant enters the applicant’s legal name and BACB ID number. The BACB ID is generated when the applicant creates an account on the BACB website, so the applicant should set up that account and share the ID before handing the form to the certificant.

Section B: Attesting Certificant Information

The certificant enters their own legal name, their certification type (BCaBA, BCBA, BCBA-D, or FL-CBA), and their BACB certification number or BACB ID. They also enter the name of the organization where both parties are employed or have a contractual relationship, and indicate whether they are employed by or contracted with that organization.¹

Section C: Attestations

This section is the substance of the form. The certificant confirms four things about the applicant:

The applicant is at least 18 years old.
The applicant has at least a high school education or equivalent.
The applicant passed a criminal background check comparable to those required for home health aides, child care professionals, or teachers in the service community, within 180 days of application submission. The specific date of the check is entered here.
The applicant cleared an abuse registry check under the same comparability standard and within the same 180-day window. The date of that check is also entered here.

The certificant then acknowledges that submitting falsified or inaccurate information violates the BACB’s ethics requirements.¹ The BACB states that it may prohibit an individual from sitting for the exam, or invalidate any certification outright, when false, inconsistent, or misleading information is submitted.²

The certificant then prints their name, signs, and dates the form.

Who Can Sign as the Attesting Certificant

The signer must hold an active BCaBA, BCBA, BCBA-D, or FL-CBA certification.¹ Three restrictions apply: the Attesting Certificant cannot be related to the applicant, cannot be subordinate to the applicant, and cannot be employed by the applicant.² A family member who happens to hold a BCBA cannot sign, and a certificant who reports to the applicant in some other capacity is also disqualified.

The Attesting Certificant does not have to be the same person who administered the Initial Competency Assessment, and does not have to be the applicant’s ongoing RBT Supervisor or RBT Requirements Coordinator. In organizations that use the Requirements Coordinator structure, one Coordinator oversees all of an RBT’s certification requirements, while RBT Supervisors handle clinical supervision. Only BCBAs and BCBA-Ds can serve as Requirements Coordinators; BCaBAs cannot hold that role, though they can supervise.⁴

Timing Rules That Stall Applications

Three separate clocks run on this application, and getting any one of them wrong invalidates a document.²

The attestation form must be signed no more than 90 days before the applicant pays for the application.
The criminal background check and abuse registry check must be dated no more than 180 days before payment.
The Initial Competency Assessment must be completed no more than 90 days before submission.

If any window has expired when the application is submitted, the underlying document is no longer valid and has to be redone. The most common mistakes the BACB flags are mismatched dates between the attestation and the background check, expired documents, and missing signatures.⁵ Coordinate the sign date with the applicant’s planned payment date, and confirm the background and registry check dates before signing.

Uploading the Form and What Happens Next

The application is submitted online through the applicant’s BACB account. The applicant uploads the signed attestation form and the completed Initial Competency Assessment, then pays the $65 application fee by credit card. The BACB recommends reviewing everything before uploading, because errors extend processing beyond the standard two-week timeline.⁵ If the board finds a problem, the applicant receives a determination email and has to resubmit corrected documentation, with up to two additional weeks allowed for processing the resubmission.⁶ Current processing dates are posted on the BACB’s Application Processing Updates page.⁷

Recordkeeping and Consequences

Both the applicant and the Attesting Certificant should keep a copy of the completed form and the supporting background and registry check documentation for at least seven years, because the BACB may request it during an audit.¹ Because the certificant signs under the BACB’s ethics requirements, an inaccurate attestation is a separate exposure from whatever underlying eligibility problem it conceals: the board can bar the applicant from testing or invalidate a certification already issued.² Verifying dates and documents before signing is the entire job of this form.

1
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. RBT Certification Application Attestation Form
2
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Registered Behavior Technician Handbook
3
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. RBT 2026 40-Hour Training Requirements and Curriculum Outline
4
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. When to Establish an RBT Requirements Coordinator Structure Within an Organization
5
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. BACB RBT Certification Application
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Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Application Documentation Resubmissions
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Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Application Processing Updates