Inactive RBT status

Why a certification is inactive

• No supervisor on record. If no RBT Supervisor or Requirements Coordinator lists you as a supervisee, your status is inactive with "No Supervisor/Coordinator on Record". This is how every new RBT starts. To reactivate, a qualified supervisor adds you in their BACB account.
• Voluntary inactive or active duty/reserve status, which you request.
• The reinstatement period: you missed your recertification date and are within the 30 days to reinstate.
• Sanctions against your certification.

Inactive because of no supervisor is not the same as voluntary inactive status.

Voluntary inactive status

If you need a break, for example because you won't be providing services for a long time, you can ask to go inactive while your certification is still current (not after you've missed your date, and not during the reinstatement period):

• Submit the RBT Application for Voluntary Inactive Status in your BACB account and pay $25, well before your expiration date.
• It starts when the application and payment are approved and can last up to two years. You don't submit recertification applications while inactive.
• After you return, you can't go on voluntary inactive status again until you've completed one full recertification cycle.

Returning

1. Complete the RBT Recertification Competency Assessment no more than 45 days before you ask to reactivate. From January 1, 2027 this form is called the RBT Reentry Competency Assessment; the content is the same.
2. Submit the Return from Voluntary Inactive Status Application and pay $25, within two years of the date you went inactive.
3. Have a supervisor add you as a supervisee: your certification resumes once it's reactivated and a supervisor is on record.

If you don't return within two years, your certification expires as of the date it would have expired had you not gone inactive. The handbook's example: an RBT certified for September 30, 2025 to September 29, 2026 who went inactive on December 1, 2025 must return by December 1, 2027, or the certification shows as expired from September 29, 2026. Becoming an RBT again then means reapplying under the requirements in place at that time.

Military service

If you're called to active duty while certified, you can pause your certification for the period you're called up, up to two years, at no cost: submit the Voluntary Inactive Status Application with a copy of your orders. This applies to service members joining up or being deployed. A spouse who wants to go inactive applies normally and pays the $25 fee. Afterward, or after two years, whichever comes first, submit the Return from Voluntary Inactive Status Application; your recertification cycle or exam authorization window then resumes.

While you're inactive

Whatever the reason, you can't practice, bill or present yourself as an active RBT. The RBT Ethics Code (standard 3.07) also requires you to tell your supervisor within 24 hours of learning that your certification status has changed, and then follow the BACB's rules on practice, billing and use of the title.