Behavior Analyst Licensure in Mississippi: BCBA and State License Requirements

Mississippi issues two licences.

The licensed behavior analyst is a person who meets the BCBA or BCBA-D requirements set by the BACB and is licensed by the Board; the licensed assistant behavior analyst is the BCaBA-level equivalent (Rule 1.3).

Each licensee receives a Certificate of Licensure that the rules require them to display prominently at their place or places of employment (Rule 4.1).

A third status is the temporary licence: a six-month bridge for an applicant who has taken the national examination and is awaiting scores, or is awaiting the next board examination, with practice restricted to Mississippi and supervision by a Mississippi licensed behavior analyst mandatory (Rules 3.4, 3.5, 7/2025 posted revision).

The technician tier is different in kind: a registration, not a licence.

Under the rules finalized 3.13.2024, education for the behavior analyst licence is at least a master's degree — for example an M.S., M.A. or M.Ed. — from an institution with academic programs approved by the BACB, plus the BCBA examination and current BCBA or BCBA-D certification (Rule 3.2).

The posted 7/2025 revision rewords this: recognized institutions are those with programs approved historically by the BACB and presently by ABAI, and the posted text no longer restates the degree sentence, pointing instead to Miss.

Code Ann. § 73-75-13, whose text was not read for this page.

The assistant licence runs parallel at the bachelor's level with BCaBA certification and records of ongoing supervision by a licensed behavior analyst (Rule 3.3).

Confirm the current degree wording with the board before you apply.

Two exams sit on the Mississippi path.

The first is the national BCBA examination, embedded in the certification requirement itself.

The second is the board's own: the rules finalized 3.13.2024 require an oral examination administered by the Board, scheduled no less than quarterly with dates corresponding to BACB exam windows (Rules 2.3(G), 3.2(C)), and all application materials — application, fee, transcripts, BCBA verification and fingerprint cards — due no later than seven days before the published examination date.

The posted 7/2025 revision renames it a jurisprudence examination and tightens the stakes: failing it means no licence, and a temporary licence is revoked immediately (Rule 3.5(D)).

For technicians the rules take the opposite approach: no examination shall be required for registration (Rule 9.3(D)).

Registration is built around the supervising licensee.

The application for a behavior technician's registration is submitted by the supervising licensee, not by the technician (Rule 9.3(A)); the 7/2025 revision requires registration within seven (7) days of employment and/or BACB certification as an RBT and makes failure to register a rules violation that may bring disciplinary action (Rule 9.3(B)).

The licensed behavior analyst is responsible for all conduct of the behavior technician, supervision must comply with the BACB's supervision policy, and the Board may audit supervision records (Rules 9.1, 9.3(E)).

When supervision ends, the licensee must notify the Board within seven days (Rule 9.4).

Assistants carry their own supervision duty: records of ongoing supervision by a licensed behavior analyst (Rule 3.3(C)), and a temporary licensee may not supervise any other licensee or behavior technician (Rule 3.5(B)).

The rules govern licensure of applied behavior analysis practice and, in their stated purpose, establish minimum qualifications and create exclusive titles for individuals who wish to offer behavior analysis services to the public (Rule 1.1).

Their one written exemption is directional: Rule 8.1 keeps the rules from limiting a qualified assistant or paraprofessional performing ABA duties assigned by a professional who is exempt by statute, so long as the assistant does not perform duties the exempt professional is not otherwise qualified to perform.

Which professionals that covers is a statute question: the exemption list in Miss.

Code Ann. § 73-75-5 was not read for this page, so the statute's exempt-professional list is not stated in the sources read.

The board's own ABA FAQ says clinical direction, supervision and case management of ABA services belong to a provider with demonstrated advanced ABA training and competence — current BCBA or BCBA-D certification, or psychology licensure with documented ABA scope and competence — but does not address whether such a psychologist needs an ABA licence.

The rules finalized 3.13.2024 include a licensure-by-reciprocity rule, but it is no shortcut: the applicant submits sworn evidence of having met every Rule 3.1 and Rule 3.2 or 3.3 requirement — the same education, national examination and BACB certification standards any Mississippi applicant meets.

In practical terms, a behavior analyst licensed elsewhere applies as an applicant, with fingerprint cards and the criminal background investigation fee ($35, Rule 10.2) among the materials.

The posted 7/2025 revision renumbers chapter 3 and no longer carries the reciprocity rule at all; whether that revision is final or proposed is not confirmed, so an out-of-state licensee should ask the Board how it currently handles endorsement before relying on either text.

A licence may run no more than three years before it must be renewed (Rule 5.1).

Renewal takes the form, proof of continuing education and the fee, filed before expiration; a late filing carries a $50 penalty, and a licence lapsed more than two consecutive years cannot be reinstated (Rules 5.2, 5.3).

Continuing education changed between the two rule texts: both cap asynchronous coursework at 50 percent; the 3.13.2024 final rules require twelve hours per year including one ethics or legal hour, reported by June 30, with excess hours carrying over; the 7/2025 posted revision requires thirty-six hours per three-year renewal cycle including three ethics or legal hours, no carryover, at most 50 percent from employer-provided accredited programs, and bars credit for repeating continuing-education activities.

Only continuing education approved by the BACB or a verified course sequence accrediting body (for example ABAI or APBA) counts (Rule 6.4).

Fees: $250 application and renewal for a behavior analyst, $100 assistant, $75 temporary licence, $25 technician registration (Rule 10.2).

Every operative text on this page comes from two board documents: Part 3301 as finalized 3.13.2024 and a revision posted 7/2025 whose final adoption the sources do not confirm.

The posted revision replaces the oral examination with a jurisprudence examination (Rules 2.3(G), 3.2(C)), restructures continuing education from twelve hours a year to thirty-six per three-year cycle (Rule 6.2), moves applications and technician filings onto the board's website and license management system (Rules 3.1(A), 9.3(A), 9.4), creates the seven (7)-day registration deadline and failure-to-register violation for behavior technicians (Rule 9.3(B)), rewords recognized institutions to programs approved historically by the BACB and presently by ABAI (Rule 3.2(A)), and drops the 2024 text's licensure-by-reciprocity rule and its bar on temporary licensure after three failed national-examination attempts.

Whether the board has adopted it is not stated in the sources read — verify against the board's rules page.