Behavior Analyst Licensure in North Carolina: BCBA and State License Requirements

North Carolina issues two licences.

The licensed behavior analyst is an individual certified by the certifying entity as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who holds an active, unsuspended licence under the Article; the licensed assistant behavior analyst adds the condition that the licence permits practice only under the supervision of a licensed behavior analyst (G.S.

90-732(6), (7)).

The restriction reaches further than the two titles: practising behavior analysis without a licence is itself a violation, and so is holding oneself out to the public as practising it.

Each violation counts as a separate offense and the conduct is a Class 2 misdemeanor (G.S.

90-746(b)); the board may also apply to the Superior Court of Wake County for an injunction (G.S.

90-747).

For a certified BCBA, certification alone does not authorize practice in North Carolina.

Article 43 writes no degree or coursework rule of its own — the education rides on certification.

An LBA applicant must be at least 18, have passed the certifying entity's Board Certified Behavior Analyst examination, and hold active status with the certifying entity as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, alongside the qualifications the board sets under its G.S.

90-734(a)(3) rulemaking power (G.S.

90-737; 90-734(a)(3)).

The board's rules were not read, so state-added qualifications are possible.

The application must show good moral character, no practice history that would ground denial under G.S.

90-742, and the criminal history record required by G.S.

90-744; a licence obtained through fraud is void (G.S.

90-736).

A conviction is not an automatic bar — the board weighs all six factors: the crime's seriousness and date, age at conviction, the circumstances, the nexus between the conduct and the job's duties, and the record since (G.S.

90-744(c)).

The certifying entity is defined as the BACB or the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis Credentialing Board; how the board applies that second branch is not stated in the sources read.

The statute's exam requirement is the certifying entity's own: LBA applicants must have passed the Board Certified Behavior Analyst examination and LABA applicants the Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst examination (G.S.

90-737(2); 90-738(2)).

Article 43 names no separate North Carolina exam.

The board does hold rulemaking power to adopt, amend or repeal rules to administer and enforce the Article (G.S.

90-734(a)(2)), and the implementing rules were not read for this page, so whether the board adds any state-specific examination is not stated in the sources read.

Check the board's application instructions before you schedule around this.

Supervision is written into the lower tiers.

A LABA applicant needs an ongoing supervision arrangement with a licensed behavior analyst, and renewal requires fresh evidence of it — so for an assistant, losing an LBA supervisor is a licensing problem, not just an employment one (G.S.

90-738(4); 90-739(b)(4)).

The behavior technician practises under the close, ongoing supervision of a licensed behavior analyst, licensed assistant behavior analyst, or other Chapter 90 or 90B professional within that professional's scope, and does not design assessment or intervention plans (G.S.

90-732(2)).

Two exemptions cover people still accruing experience: students in a defined college course program, practicum or intensive practicum supervised by a licensed behavior analyst, an instructor in a certifying-entity-approved course sequence, or a qualified faculty member; and people pursuing the certifying entity's experience requirements under the supervision of a licensed behavior analyst (G.S.

90-745(7), (8)).

Read together, exemption (8)'s experience route requires a licensed behavior analyst, while the college-program route in exemption (7) also accepts an approved course-sequence instructor or a qualified faculty member.

Behavior analysis is the design, implementation and evaluation of systematic instructional and environmental modifications to produce significant personal or interpersonal improvements in human behavior, and the practice expressly includes the empirical identification of functional relations — functional assessment and analysis (G.S.

90-732(1), (8)).

It just as expressly excludes modalities that belong to other professions.

The exemption list keeps those lines: exemption (1) covers licensed psychologists and psychological associates and people who provide ancillary services in accordance with G.S.

90-270.154, and exemption (6) covers professionals licensed under Chapter 90 or 90B acting within scope so long as they do not represent themselves as licensed behavior analysts or licensed assistant behavior analysts (G.S.

90-745(1), (6)); the list also covers family members, guardians and caretakers implementing a plan, nonhuman work, organization-serving work with no direct services, college programs, and experience-seekers (G.S.

90-745(3)–(8)).

One gap for school-based roles: none of the eight exemptions names school employees, so a BCBA practising behavior analysis in a North Carolina school setting appears to need the licence unless another exemption covers the arrangement — confirm with the board.

Reciprocity carries a two-way condition: the board shall license an individual actively licensed as a behavior analyst or assistant behavior analyst in another state only when that state imposes licensure requirements comparable to North Carolina's and offers reciprocity to North Carolina licensees (G.S.

90-741(a)).

The application then adds proof of ethical compliance, proof of current licensure, proof of current certification by the certifying entity, a criminal history record check, and any other eligibility requirement the board deems appropriate (G.S.

90-741(b)).

For short engagements there is a separate route: an actively licensed or certified behavior analyst who resides and practises elsewhere may apply for a temporary licence, available only for services delivered during a limited and defined period of service the board approves (G.S.

90-740).

The statute caps the money: no more than $250 for a reciprocal application and $100 for a temporary application (G.S.

90-743(4), (5)).

A licence runs for two years.

Renewal takes proof of completion of any continuing education the certifying entity requires, the renewal fee, evidence of active certification by the certifying entity and, for licensed assistant behavior analysts, evidence of the ongoing supervision arrangement (G.S.

90-739(b)).

The design makes North Carolina renewal ride on BACB recertification: let the certification lapse and the evidence of active certification is gone, so the licence cannot be renewed.

A licence is suspended automatically by operation of law when renewal is more than 60 days late; the board may reinstate it on payment of a fee and may require a new application, references, updated credentials or an examination (G.S.

90-742(h)).

The statute caps the fees at $250 to apply, $200 to renew, and $50 for a late renewal (G.S.

90-743(1)–(3)); the board's rule-set fees within those caps were not read for this page.

Article 43 is recent: S.L.

2021-22 created it, and the board's site records Governor Cooper signing SB 103 in May 2021.

The saved statute shows one amendment from 2023 to 2026: S.L.

2023-129 s.4.1 amended the definitions section, G.S.

90-732.

The history note does not say which subdivision changed; as printed, the section carries the behavior-technician definition and the practice definition with its exclusions sentence, so the amendment's exact effect is not established by the sources read.

Every other section of the Article still shows only the 2021-22 enactment history in the saved text, and the sources read do not establish the date on which the licence requirement first applied — only the May 2021 signing is recorded.