Fieldwork Overview and Documentation Mindset
Key Takeaways
- Current fieldwork options are 2,000 Supervised Fieldwork hours or 1,500 Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork hours.
- A supervisory period is one calendar month.
- Standard fieldwork requires 4 contacts and 5% supervision; concentrated fieldwork requires 6 contacts and 10% supervision.
- At least 50% of supervised hours must be individual supervision.
- At least 60% of total fieldwork must be unrestricted activities.
Current Hour Options
The BACB brief lists two current fieldwork hour options. Supervised Fieldwork requires 2,000 hours. Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork requires 1,500 hours. The lower concentrated total is paired with higher supervision intensity.
Do not treat the two routes as interchangeable hour totals. Each month has its own supervision requirements, and the category you use affects contacts and supervision percentage.
Supervisory Period
A supervisory period is one calendar month. This matters because supervision contacts and percentages are evaluated by the monthly period, not only by a final grand total. A candidate who waits until the end to reconcile records may discover that a month did not meet requirements.
For standard Supervised Fieldwork, the current overview is 4 contacts and 5% supervision. For Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork, the overview is 6 contacts and 10% supervision. At least 50% of supervised hours must be individual supervision.
Unrestricted Activity Requirement
At least 60% of total fieldwork must be unrestricted activities. This is a total fieldwork expectation, so candidates should monitor the balance from the beginning. A fieldwork plan that accumulates many restricted hours early can create a hard correction later.
Unrestricted activities are not a decorative category. They reflect the development of behavior-analytic professional repertoires. For exam purposes, watch for distractors that count total hours but ignore the unrestricted percentage.
Documentation Mindset
Strong fieldwork documentation is timely, consistent, and tied to the official requirements. Track each calendar month, total hours, supervision hours, number of contacts, individual supervision proportion, and unrestricted percentage. Make the record easy to audit.
Do not rely on memory after many months of fieldwork. Recordkeeping should support the application, supervision decisions, and ethical accountability. If something is unclear, the correct move is to resolve it with the Handbook and supervisor, not to invent records later.
Monthly Fieldwork Check
| Requirement | Supervised Fieldwork | Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork |
|---|---|---|
| Total hours | 2,000 | 1,500 |
| Supervisory period | 1 calendar month | 1 calendar month |
| Contacts per period | 4 | 6 |
| Supervision percentage | 5% | 10% |
| Individual supervision | At least 50% of supervised hours | At least 50% of supervised hours |
| Unrestricted activities | At least 60% of total fieldwork | At least 60% of total fieldwork |
Use this table as a study aid, not as a substitute for the Handbook. The numbers are official facts in the source brief, but your own application should be checked against the current BACB materials.
During a calendar month, a trainee is accruing Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork. Which minimum contact and supervision pattern matches the current overview?
A trainee has many total fieldwork hours but only 45% unrestricted activities. What is the best interpretation?
A supervisee asks why monthly records matter if the final total hours will exceed 2,000. Which response is best?