What to ask on an RBT phone screen, and what to leave out

Five questions, in this order

A first phone screen with an RBT applicant needs to answer five things: where the person stands on the credential, when they can work, where they can work, whether your pay fits them, and what they want to know about you. Ask them in that order and stop there. Anything that needs a judgment about how someone works with a client belongs in the interview, with a BCBA in the room.

The phone screen is usually the step that waits. Applicants apply to several clinics at once, and the person who should make the call is often also covering a caseload or the front desk. A short, fixed screen fits between those things, and its answers compare across applicants.

The credential question, and why it changed this year

Ask it as a status question. "Are you an RBT?" gets a yes from someone halfway through the training. "Where are you in the RBT process?" gets one of four answers: certified, trained and waiting on the exam, in training, or not started. Each leads to a different onboarding plan. Because the BACB's requirements changed on January 1, 2026, three follow-ups matter more than usual.

When did you finish the 40-hour training? An application submitted on or after that date needs training that meets the 2026 requirements, with a specific approval statement on the certificate. The BACB says there is no bridge course: someone trained under the old requirements completes the full training again.^[1] An applicant who finished a course in 2024 and never applied is, for planning purposes, back in training.

Have you applied, and when was it approved? An application approved before January 1, 2026 stays valid for 12 months, with up to eight exam attempts in that window.^[1] For anyone approved late in 2025, that window ends by the close of this year.

Have you done the Initial Competency Assessment? It comes after the training. Since January 2024 the BACB has required the assessor, any assistant assessors, and the applicant to be employed at, or contracted with, the same organization where the client receives services.^[2] If the applicant joins you without it, the assessment is your own assessors' time on your calendar.

An RBT applicant must be at least 18, have a high school-level education or equivalent, and undergo a criminal background check and an abuse registry check reviewed by an attestor.^[1] The screen does not run those checks; it can say they are coming. These BACB documents date from 2025 and the handbook is revised, so confirm any individual case against the current RBT Handbook.

For anyone who says they are certified, verify after the call. The BACB calls its Certificant Registry the primary resource for verifying certification status, updated daily.^[3] Its newsletter asks employers to check the falsified credentials page when an applicant cannot be found in the registry.^[2]

Hours and places

Ask for specific days and hours, not "full-time or part-time," then how many hours a week they want and what range they would accept.

Then the settings: center, homes, schools, and which of your locations. For in-home work, ask how they get around and how far they will travel between sessions.

Both are worth getting exactly right. In the BACB's survey of former RBTs, 41% said the number of hours they worked per week, too many or too few, influenced their decision to stop working as an RBT, 38% named an unpredictable schedule, and 26% named travel between work sites or commute time.^[2] There is more on that survey, and its limits, in our piece on why RBTs leave, according to the BACB's exit survey.

Pay, and their questions

Say your pay range out loud, early, and ask whether it works. Then say how pay works: hourly or per session, and what happens when a session cancels. That is the question behind "is the pay predictable," and unpredictable pay was named by 34% of the survey's respondents.^[2] If the range does not work, both of you know before anyone books an interview.

Leave real time for the applicant's questions, and keep written answers so every caller gives the same one. A newer question is professional development: under the 2026 requirements an RBT earns 12 professional development units per two-year cycle, and in-service training from their own employer is one of three ways to earn them.^[1] If you run in-service sessions, say so.

What to leave for the interview

Scenario questions. "What would you do if a child refuses a task" is a question a BCBA needs to hear answered, and the phone screen is often run by someone who is not one.

Questions the law restricts. The EEOC's guidance says information requested before hiring "should be limited to those essential," and that "Employers are explicitly prohibited from making pre-offer inquiries about disability."^[4] States add their own rules. Which questions belong on your list is for your counsel or HR adviser to say; show them the list before anyone uses it.

Where phone screens go wrong

Every screener asks different questions. Two applicants screened by two people cannot be compared. Write the questions down, ask them in order, and record the answers in the same fields: credential status, training date, days and hours, settings, travel, pay fit, start date.

The screen becomes the interview. Forty minutes on the phone is an interview without the BCBA. Book the rest.

Calls only go out mid-morning. An applicant with a day job or classes may pick up at 6 p.m. and not at 11 a.m.

Where Virida fits

I built Virida, a hiring assistant for ABA clinics, so grain of salt. Its screener calls RBT and BCBA applicants who apply through your apply link, usually within 5 minutes during your calling hours; outside them, the call waits for your next calling window. It asks the screening questions your clinic wrote, answers applicants' questions only from the Q&A your clinic approved, and sends you a summary and a transcript. When an applicant wants a person, it forwards the call to your hiring manager during the hours you set. Applicants say yes to the call when they apply and can tell it to stop at any time.

To be clear, it does not score, rank, or recommend anyone. A person on your team reads the summary and decides who gets a link to book an interview. It works next to your ATS, not instead of it (how it works).

If you hire a few people a year and someone can call each one the same day, a written list of five questions is all you need.