Ethics
Domain F is 11 of the 75 scored questions (15%) spread across ten tasks, F.1 through F.10 — note that there is no F.11. The 3rd-edition outline renamed this domain from "Professional Conduct and Scope of Practice" to "Ethics" and doubled its task count from five to ten while keeping the same eleven questions, so the coverage is now broad and shallow: expect one or two items on almost every task rather than five items on a few. The governing document is the RBT Ethics Code (2.0), and F.10 — ongoing cultural humility and responsiveness — is genuinely new, with no counterpart in the 2nd-edition task list and no coverage in study material written for it.
What this domain asks you to do (F.1–F.10)
Ten tasks, and they are the ten places where the exam can ask you what a professional does rather than what a procedure is. Read the verbs again: identify and apply, provide, adhere, engage. This is the domain most likely to be tested through uncomfortable, realistic scenarios — a parent's friend request, a colleague cutting corners, a gift at the end of a case, a supervisor who has gone quiet — and the wrong answers will all be things decent people actually do. There is no F.11; if a study resource lists one, it is not working from the 3rd-edition outline.
The code you are actually held to (F.1)
The governing document is the RBT Ethics Code (2.0), which replaced the 2018 RBT Ethics Code and has been in effect since January 1, 2022. It contains 29 standards across three sections: General Responsibilities, Responsibilities in Providing Behavior-Technician Services, and Responsibilities to the BACB and BACB-Required Supervisor. Underneath the 29 standards sit four core principles that F.1 asks you to identify and apply. RBTs benefit others. RBTs treat others with compassion, dignity, and respect. RBTs behave with integrity. RBTs ensure their own competence. Those four are worth memorizing in the code's own words, because F.1 is written around them and because they are also the tie-breaker when a scenario is not covered by any specific standard. Applying them is more than reciting them. Benefiting others means the client's interest sets the direction, not the schedule's or the employer's or your own convenience. Compassion, dignity and respect means the client is a person in front of other people — speak to them and about them accordingly, including in front of families, in front of school staff, and in your notes. Integrity means your records match reality and your behavior does not change when nobody is observing. Competence means you know the limits of what you have been trained to do and you say so.
Competence before service (F.2)
F.2 says you provide services only after demonstrating competence — which means being trained on the specific procedure, for the specific client, and having shown you can run it, not merely having read about it or watched someone else do it. In practice this decides a very common exam scenario: you are asked to cover a session for a client whose plan you have not been trained on, or to run a program that appeared on the schedule without training. The answer is never to have a go and see how it works out. You say you have not been trained on that procedure and you seek direction — which is also exactly what E.2 requires — and your supervisor arranges training or reassigns the session. The same holds when a plan changes: a revised procedure is a new procedure, and being trained on the old version does not carry over. Two nuances the exam likes. First, competence is procedure-specific and often client-specific, so "I've run token economies before" is not competence for this client's token economy. Second, competence is not a one-time achievement — if you have not run something in months, or you are aware your implementation has drifted, requesting a refresher is the professional move, not an admission of weakness.
Ongoing supervision: the numbers you must know (F.3)
You may provide behavior-analytic services only under ongoing supervision from a supervisor who meets the BACB's requirements, and the amount is defined precisely. You must obtain ongoing supervision for a minimum of 5% of the hours you spend providing behavior-analytic services each calendar month. Read that denominator carefully, because the exam builds distractors out of it: the 5% is of hours spent providing behavior-analytic services, not of all hours worked, not of hours paid, and the accounting period is the calendar month, not a rolling thirty days. If you work at more than one organization, you must meet the supervision requirements at each organization where you provide behavior-analytic services. The structure is defined too. Supervision must include at least two face-to-face, real-time contacts per month — supervision may not occur over the phone or via email. Your supervisor must observe you providing services in at least one of those monthly meetings; in-person on-site observation is preferred, but observations may be conducted via web camera, video-conferencing or similar means, and internet-based supervision must comply with all applicable laws. Video monitoring on its own, without real-time interaction or feedback, may not count as supervision. At least one of the two contacts must be individual, with no other RBTs or trainees present; the other may be a small-group meeting of 2 to 10 RBTs who share similar experiences, and the number of RBTs may not exceed 10 regardless of how many supervisors are present. Finally, ongoing supervision and professional development are separate requirements and one event cannot cover both — ongoing supervision must be client focused. Supervision documentation is retained by you and your supervisor for at least 7 years, even if the supervisory relationship has ended or someone else has taken over.
What effective supervision looks like (F.4)
F.4 asks you to identify effective supervision practices, and the outline names them: training that includes instructions, modeling, rehearsal and feedback, plus observation of your service delivery. That four-part sequence is how skills are actually taught — you are told how, shown how, you practice while someone watches, and you receive feedback — and it is the same sequence you use with clients, which is why the exam expects you to recognize it. A supervision session that consists only of someone describing a procedure to you is incomplete: nothing was modeled, you never rehearsed it, and nobody watched you do it. Observation matters for the same reason data matter — without it, your supervisor is evaluating your implementation from your own description of it. Your side of effective supervision is active: come with your data and your questions, be specific about what is difficult, describe what actually happened rather than what should have happened, and try the feedback before deciding it will not work. Raise problems early. And if your supervision is not happening — meetings repeatedly canceled, no observation, no real-time contact — that is not a scheduling inconvenience, it is a requirement not being met, and it belongs with your supervisor first and then with your organization's escalation path.
Confidentiality (F.5)
The code requires you to protect the confidentiality and privacy of clients, stakeholders and others in the workplace by following all related requirements established by the BACB, your employer and the law, and to maintain confidentiality when interacting with client information and records. Two further standards sharpen it. You only discuss confidential client information under the direction of your supervisor, unless disclosure is allowed by law for a valid reason such as protecting the client or others from harm. And you only share necessary client information in your job-related communications, including emails and documentation. Put practically: the default is that client information does not leave the people who need it for the client's care. That covers casual conversation as much as records — the story you tell your partner about a funny thing a client did today identifies a real child, and so does the anecdote in a training session, and so does the conversation in the lift. It covers other professionals too: a teacher asking about a client's diagnosis or history is asking for confidential information, and whether it can be shared is your supervisor's call, not yours. The exceptions exist and are narrow, and "allowed by law for a valid reason" is where suspected-harm reporting sits. If you are unsure whether a disclosure is permitted, you ask before disclosing, not after.
Public statements and social media (F.6)
This task covers two separate risks. The first is client information in public: the code states plainly that RBTs do not share identifying information — photos, videos, written information — about clients on social media or websites. Read that as the absolute it is. There is no consent exception written into it, so an exam option keyed to "it is fine because the parent gave permission" is wrong, and so is a post with the face blurred but the school named, or a proud story with no name that anyone in that community could place. The code's own definition of social media is broad — any digital platform where users consume, create, copy, download, share or comment on posts or advertisements, with both posts and advertisements counting as digital content — so a private group, a story that disappears, a professional networking post and a review site are all covered. The second risk is misrepresentation. Do not overstate your credentials or let a misunderstanding stand: an RBT is a registered behavior technician, not a therapist, an analyst, a specialist or a doctor, and you use the credential only while your certification is active. Do not misrepresent behavior analysis or what it can deliver, and do not promise or imply outcomes — no guarantees, no predicted results, no testimonial about how a client's life changed. If someone asks you publicly what results a family can expect, the honest and correct answer is that outcomes are individual and that is a conversation for the supervising behavior analyst.
Multiple relationships (F.7)
A multiple relationship is a mixing of two or more of your roles — professional and personal, friend, family member, employee or employer — with a client, stakeholder, supervisor, coworker, or someone closely associated with the client. The code directs RBTs to avoid multiple relationships with clients, coworkers and supervisors, because mixing roles creates conflicts of interest and risk of harm to the client. If one develops anyway — and they do, especially in small communities where your client's aunt turns out to be your neighbor — the required sequence is specific: immediately inform your supervisor, work to resolve it, and document those actions. If the multiple relationship involves your supervisor, you report it to your supervisor's manager or another appropriate entity such as human resources or the BACB, and document that communication. Two related rules sit alongside it. RBTs are never employers of their supervisor, although an RBT who is also accruing supervised fieldwork toward a future BCBA or BCaBA application may separately contract for those supervision services. And romantic or sexual relationships carry three distinct rules that the exam loves precisely because they are three different numbers: no romantic or sexual relationships with current clients, stakeholders or supervisors; none with former clients or stakeholders for a minimum of two years from the date the professional relationship ended; none with former supervisors until the parties can document that the professional relationship has ended, meaning all professional duties are complete; and no receiving supervision from someone with whom you have had a past romantic or sexual relationship until at least six months after that relationship ended.
Gifts (F.8)
F.8 exists because the gift rule is specific enough to be tested exactly. Because exchanging gifts can lead to conflicts of interest and multiple relationships, RBTs do not give gifts to or accept gifts from clients, stakeholders, or supervisors with a monetary value of more than $10 US dollars, or the equivalent purchasing power in another currency. Four details decide the items built on this. The threshold is more than $10, so a gift valued at $10 is not over the limit. It runs in both directions — giving and accepting are equally covered. It covers supervisors, not only clients and their families. And a gift is acceptable if it functions as an occasional expression of gratitude and does not result in financial benefit to the recipient, which means giving or accepting ongoing or cumulative gifts may rise to the level of a violation if the gifts become a regularly expected source of income or value, even where each individual gift is small. One more rule outranks all of it: if your employer has a stricter policy, including a policy prohibiting gift exchange entirely, you follow the employer's policy. So the practical answer to a family holding out an expensive gift is to decline warmly, explain that professional guidelines limit what you can accept, and tell your supervisor it was offered.
Your obligations to the BACB
The third section of the code covers what you owe the BACB and your required supervisor, and two of its standards carry numbers you should know. Self-reporting: you must be aware of the events you need to self-report, and you self-report to the BACB within 30 days of the event, or within 30 days of becoming aware of it. The reportable categories are any event that might affect your ability to carry out behavior-technician services or comply with BACB requirements, including legal charges and subsequent related actions; investigations by employers, governmental agencies, educational institutions or third-party payers naming you; disciplinary actions by those bodies, including suspensions and terminations for cause; and physical conditions, mental conditions or substance abuse that may impair your ability to provide services safely. Certification status: within 24 hours of becoming aware of a change to your certification status — inactive, expired, suspended, revoked — you report the change to your supervisor and then comply with the applicable BACB requirements about practice, billing and use of the RBT title. The code also directs RBTs to check their BACB account regularly, giving monthly as an example, so that personal details such as name, email and mailing address stay accurate; note that "regularly (e.g., monthly)" is an example rather than a fixed rule.
Interpersonal and professional skills (F.9)
F.9 names four skills explicitly — accepting feedback, listening actively, seeking input, and collaborating — and it applies whenever you are representing yourself as an RBT, which includes every interaction with families, school staff, other providers and colleagues. Accepting feedback is the one that appears most in scenarios: the professional response to corrective feedback is to thank the person, ask clarifying questions if you need them, and implement the change, not to explain why the situation was different or to defend yourself first. Active listening means letting the other person finish, reflecting back what you understood, and checking rather than assuming — particularly with caregivers, who often approach a technician sideways, mentioning something small when they want to raise something large. Seeking input means asking a caregiver or teacher what they are seeing rather than only telling them what you did, which is also how you discover the concerns that E.1 requires you to pass on. Collaborating means treating a teacher or a speech therapist as a partner in a shared plan rather than as an obstacle to your session, and it means handling disagreement without arguing in front of the client: you can say you will run the plan as written today and raise the concern with your supervisor, which is both professional and correct.
Cultural humility and responsiveness (F.10, new in the 3rd edition)
F.10 is the newest task in the outline: engage in ongoing cultural humility and responsiveness, including identifying personal biases, in service delivery and professional relationships. There is nothing like it in the 2nd-edition task list, and the obligation behind it lives in the RBT Ethics Code (2.0), which directs RBTs to work directly with their supervisor to ensure that they are culturally responsive in their work and to actively work to evaluate their own biases. The word "humility" is doing real work. Cultural competence sounds like a state you can reach and then stop; cultural humility is an ongoing practice of assuming you do not fully understand another person's context and being willing to be corrected. And the word "ongoing" is in the task statement itself, which tells you that a one-time training is not what is being described. In practice this shows up in ordinary session decisions. Families differ in what they consider an appropriate reinforcer, in how they feed and dress and discipline children, in how directly they will disagree with a professional, in who in the family speaks for the client, in what independence goals mean to them, and in what they find rude or intrusive. None of those differences is a compliance problem to be managed. When a family's practice conflicts with how a program is written, that is information for your supervisor — a plan a family cannot live with will not be implemented at home and will fail, so raising it is clinical work, not diplomacy. Identifying personal biases means noticing your own reactions: which families you find easy, whose questions you take seriously, whose homes you judge, which clients you assume can or cannot learn something. Those noticings belong in supervision. Two practical anchors: use interpretation services rather than a family member or a child when there is a language barrier, and ask a family how they would like something done rather than assuming the way you were trained is the neutral way.
Scope of practice: what an RBT never does
Scope is not a separate task, it is the shape of the whole outline. Look at the verbs across all 43 tasks: implement, conduct, participate, describe, identify, calculate, enter, communicate, report, adhere, engage. Not one task says design, select, interpret, diagnose, prescribe or modify. That is the boundary, and it is why so many exam items can be settled by asking which side of it an option sits on. You do not modify a behavior plan or a teaching program, even in a small way, even when your reasons are good, even when the client is having a hard day. You do not design assessments or select which assessment to use. You do not interpret assessment results or determine the function of a particular client's behavior. You do not diagnose, and you do not give a prognosis — no answering "will she talk," "is he going to be able to go to a mainstream school," "how long will this take." You do not give clinical advice to caregivers or recommend goals, services or placements. You do not provide services without the required ongoing supervision, and you do not provide services you have not been trained to deliver. What you do instead, every time, is implement the plan faithfully, gather accurate data, and route the question or the concern to your supervisor. Two clarifications that stop this being over-applied. First, staying in scope does not mean being unhelpful — a warm "that's a really good question, and I want you to get a proper answer, so let me have the BCBA call you" is inside scope and is good practice. Second, in-scope work is done without asking permission each time: implementing the plan you are trained on is the job, not something requiring sign-off.
Key facts and numbers for Domain F
Ethics is the domain with the most exact numbers on the exam, and every number below comes from the RBT Ethics Code (2.0) or the BACB's RBT Handbook. Learn them as a set, because the exam builds distractors by swapping one number for another from the same set.
Worked scenario: the friend request
An RBT has worked with 7-year-old Ana for six months, and Ana's mother chats warmly at every drop-off. One evening the mother sends the RBT a friend request from her personal social-media account. Four options: accept, to maintain the rapport that supports Ana's treatment; accept, but commit to never posting or messaging anything about Ana or her services; decline, and inform the supervisor that the request was received, in line with the provider's policy; ignore the request and block the account so the situation cannot recur. Start by naming the ethical issue, because that is what separates the options: a personal social-media connection with a client's caregiver mixes a personal role with a professional one, which is the definition of a multiple relationship, and the code directs RBTs to avoid them and to inform the supervisor if one develops. Now eliminate. Accepting for the sake of rapport confuses two different things — professional rapport is built and maintained inside the service relationship, and it does not require an online friendship, which can in fact damage it by blurring the boundary. Accepting with a private commitment not to post is the option that catches thoughtful candidates: it treats the risk as being about deliberate posts, when the risk is the relationship itself, plus the incidental exposure that comes with it — your personal life visible to a client's family, their posts visible to you, and private messages that will eventually contain a clinical question at 10pm. Blocking avoids the multiple relationship but does it discourteously, risks damaging a working relationship with a family you need, and skips the disclosure the code requires. The best answer is to decline and inform the supervisor: it maintains the boundary, treats the mother with respect, and documents the situation so the practice can respond consistently. Note the general shape — a clear boundary plus disclosure beats silent avoidance, and beats a private personal rule.
Exam traps in Domain F
Ethics traps come from two places: numbers that sound alike, and kindness that crosses a line. In every scenario item, name the standard first and only then read the options — deciding what the issue is before you see four plausible responses is what keeps you out of the trap.
Key takeaways
Ethics carries 15% of the exam and, unlike the technical domains, its answers rarely depend on a client's specific plan — which makes it the most reliably scorable domain in the test if you learn the numbers and the boundary.
Practice stays free. The full RBT (Registered Behavior Technician) study guide is the material itself, taught start to finish — a downloadable PDF + EPUB you keep.