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Reference check questions for behavior technicians

Questions for the BCBAs and clinical leads who supervised a behavior technician’s sessions, on running the plan as written, recording data honestly and working with families.

By Never Ending SolutionsPublished October 8, 2026Updated October 9, 20266 min read

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Key takeaways

The supervising BCBA is the most useful reference, because they watched the candidate’s sessions and reviewed their data.
Ask about treatment fidelity, data and session notes, responses to challenging behavior, use of feedback and boundaries with families.
Data that always looked perfect deserves a follow-up question: ask whether the supervisor’s own data ever matched the candidate’s.
Confirm the RBT credential with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, and screen the federal exclusion list if you bill Medicaid.

A behavior technician delivers the day-to-day hours of an applied behavior analysis (ABA) program, one to one with a child or adult, following a treatment plan written by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). The BCBA sees only some of those hours. Progress in the rest depends on the technician running programs as written, recording data as it happens and responding to hard behavior the way the plan says.

That makes the supervisor’s view hard to replace. A BCBA who observed the candidate’s sessions, and took data alongside them, can tell you whether the candidate’s graphs can be trusted and whether feedback from one observation showed up in the next session. An interview cannot test either.

Who to ask

The supervising BCBA or BCaBA who observed the candidate’s sessions and reviewed their data and notes.
A clinic director or clinical manager, for scheduling, cancellations, note timeliness and what families said about the candidate.
A lead or senior technician who trained the candidate or ran sessions alongside them.
For a new technician, the trainer or supervisor who ran their initial training and competency assessment.

Questions to ask, by competency

Choose the competencies that matter most for the position and two or three questions from each. Ask every reference the same set, and when an answer is a rating, ask for the example behind it.

Treatment fidelity

A plan only works if it is run as written. A small drift in prompting or reinforcement changes what the client learns.

When you watched the candidate run discrete trial or natural environment teaching, how closely did they follow the program’s prompting and reinforcement steps?
After you changed a program, how quickly and accurately did the candidate put the change into practice?
Where would you place the candidate’s fidelity to treatment plans during your direct observations, with 1 as poor and 5 as excellent, and which session explains that score? (rating)

Data and session notes

Treatment decisions, progress reports and billing all rest on the technician’s data and notes. Data filled in from memory after a session is closer to a guess than a record.

Did the candidate record data during the session or fill it in afterward? How do you know?
When you took data at the same time as the candidate, how closely did your numbers agree?
How complete and timely were the candidate’s session notes, and were any sent back for correction before billing?

Challenging behavior and safety

Aggression, self-injury and elopement can happen in any session. The technician must follow the approved safety procedures, report worsening behavior and seek clinical supervision when there is a risk of harm.

Tell me about a session where a client became aggressive or tried to leave the session area. What did the candidate do, and did it match the crisis plan?
When behavior worsened during a new extinction procedure, how did the candidate use the approved safety procedures, report the change and seek supervision? Did they stop or escalate when safety limits or a risk of harm required it?

Using supervision and feedback

Technicians work under ongoing supervision. The ones who improve ask questions and act on what the supervisor tells them.

Give me an example of feedback you gave the candidate after an observation. What changed in their next session?
Did the candidate bring questions about clients to supervision, or did you have to find the problems yourself?

Families and boundaries

In-home sessions put the technician inside a family’s routine. Clear boundaries and steady attendance keep the family’s trust and the client’s authorized hours on track.

How did the candidate respond when a parent asked for advice outside the treatment plan, or for babysitting outside sessions?
How often did the candidate cancel or arrive late to sessions, and how did families react?

Close the reference

End every reference the same way: ask whether they would hire or work with the candidate again and why, what support would help the candidate do their best work, and whether there is anything else you should know. The general question bank explains why the first of these matters most.

Checks a reference does not replace

The RBT credential, if the role requires it or the candidate lists it. Confirm it with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, which issues it, rather than relying on a certificate copy that may be out of date.
State requirements. If your state licenses or registers behavior technicians, confirm the candidate’s status with the state board as well.
The federal exclusion list, if you bill Medicaid or another federal health care program. The HHS Office of Inspector General warns that employers who hire an excluded person may face civil monetary penalties, and its guidance is to check before hiring and periodically after.
A background check under your state’s rules. If a screening company runs it, follow the Federal Trade Commission’s steps for a written disclosure and the candidate’s written permission.

Warning signs to follow up

A supervisor who never observed the candidate directly and knows their work only from data sheets.
Data that was unusually consistent, or session notes that read the same from one day to the next.
A candidate or reference who describes behavior reduction as making a client comply, rather than as teaching and reinforcement.
Repeated scheduling disruptions or shortened sessions without a documented reason or communication to the clinic, while distinguishing necessary safety stops.
Social media contact, gifts or babysitting with client families that the clinic did not know about.

One warning sign is a reason to ask another question, not a verdict. Reference check red flags covers how to check a concern fairly.

Send these questions to every reference

In ReferenceCheck, the candidate records consent and names their references from a secure link, each reference answers your questions on their phone, and you get one scored report. Candidates and references do not need accounts.

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Questions to leave out

Ask only about the work. Before an offer, the EEOC’s guidance says an employer may not ask a third party, such as a former employer, any question it could not ask the candidate directly. Leave out health, medical leave, age, family plans and other protected characteristics. What to leave out has the full list.

Common questions

Who should give a reference for a behavior technician?

The BCBA or BCaBA who supervised the candidate is the most useful reference, because they observed sessions and reviewed the candidate’s data. Add a clinic director for reliability and session notes, and for a new technician, the person who ran their training and competency assessment.

How do you verify an RBT certification?

Confirm it with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, which issues the RBT credential, rather than relying on a certificate copy or a reference’s memory. Then ask the supervising BCBA whether the candidate held the credential and received regular supervision while working with them.

Do newly certified RBTs need references?

Yes. Earning the credential shows what a new technician has learned. References from their training supervisor, a practicum or earlier work with children show how they apply it: how they take feedback, keep to a schedule and stay patient with a client who is struggling.

Sources

Behavior Analyst Certification Board, RBT Ethics Code (2.0). Checked October 9, 2026.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Exclusions (List of Excluded Individuals/Entities). Checked October 8, 2026.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Updated Special Advisory Bulletin on the Effect of Exclusion from Participation in Federal Health Care Programs. Checked October 8, 2026.
Federal Trade Commission, Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know. Checked October 8, 2026.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Enforcement Guidance: Preemployment Disability-Related Questions and Medical Examinations. Checked October 8, 2026.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the requirements that apply to your organization, and in your state, with your counsel or HR policy office.

About this guide

Written and kept up to date by Never Ending Solutions, the company that builds NES ReferenceCheck. Outside facts are cited with the date we checked them, and the advice works with or without our software. Read our editorial standards.