Baltimore City Guide
ABA Programs in Baltimore
Baltimore trains behavior analysts at three universities and employs them at an institution that has been doing developmental disabilities work since 1937. This guide covers every one of the ABA programs in Baltimore and the surrounding metro, the Maryland license you will need alongside your BCBA, and why Kennedy Krieger changes what a fieldwork placement here can be.
Key Takeaways
- 01UMBC's M.A. in Human Services Psychology with an Applied Behavior Analysis concentration is ABAI-accredited at master's level, runs 36 credits, and costs $760 per credit hour in-state.
- 02Johns Hopkins runs a 36-credit M.S. in Special Education pairing severe disabilities with applied behavior analysis, at $1,195 per credit hour — the most expensive route in the metro and the one with the strongest name.
- 03Towson University's M.S. in Special Education takes the autism-and-education route at $774 per credit in-state, a third option with a different professional destination.
- 04Kennedy Krieger Institute is the employer that defines this metro. Established in 1937 and affiliated with Johns Hopkins, it holds an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, a LEND program, and the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities — three federal designations at one institution.
- 05The metro median is $57,750 (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 21-1018), below the national figure, with a 90th percentile of $86,280 and a spread of $42,750 — narrower than most, which matters more than the median does.
Baltimore is one of the few American metros where the ABA employer market is more distinguished than the education market, and the reason has a name. Kennedy Krieger Institute has worked on developmental disabilities since 1937, is affiliated with Johns Hopkins, and holds three separate federal designations at one address: an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, a LEND training program, and the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities. Very few institutions anywhere carry that combination, and the behavior-analytic work done there is among the most influential in the field.
The education side offers three distinct routes. UMBC in Catonsville holds the metro's only ABAI accreditation, running a 36-credit M.A. in Human Services Psychology with an ABA concentration at $760 per credit in-state. Johns Hopkins pairs severe disabilities with applied behavior analysis in a 36-credit M.S. at $1,195 per credit. Towson takes the education route at $774 per credit in-state.
Maryland has licensed behavior analysts since 2014 through its Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists, so you will hold both a BCBA and a state license. And the metro's pay figures are worth reading carefully: a median below the national one, but an unusually narrow distribution, which means the difference between an early-career and an experienced salary here is smaller than in most places.
Metro scope
Includes: Baltimore, Columbia, Towson, Catonsville, Ellicott City, Glen Burnie, Bel Air, Annapolis. The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro, covering Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Queen Anne's counties — the city, the Towson and Catonsville inner ring, the Howard County corridor through Columbia and Ellicott City, and south to Annapolis.
Note: Maryland is a single-state metro, but it sits forty miles from a metro that is not. Maryland licenses behavior analysts through the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists, and has since 2014. Your BCBA is the qualifying credential and the state license is your practice authority. The complication arrives if your caseload runs down the parkway: the Washington metro spans three jurisdictions with three separate boards and no reciprocity between any of them, so a Baltimore behavior analyst who picks up work in Northern Virginia or the District needs a second and possibly a third credential. The Baltimore-Washington corridor is one commuting market and three licensing regimes.
The programs
Every one of the accredited BCBA programs in Baltimore and the metro
3 programs
University of Maryland Baltimore County — M.A. in Human Services Psychology: Applied Behavior Analysis
Catonsville, southwest of Baltimore · Catonsville, MD · On-campus; UMBC is on the BWI corridor with bus connections to the Metro SubwayLink
- Tuition
- $760 per credit hour in-state, $1,196 per credit hour out-of-state
- Length
- 36 credits, 2 years
- Format
- On-campus with online options
- Accreditation
- ABAI-accredited at master's level; UMBC Department of Psychology
- Part-time
- Available; confirm pacing with the department
- The only ABAI-accredited ABA master's in the Baltimore metro
- Housed in psychology as a Human Services Psychology degree, which keeps the research framing rather than an education one
- At $760 per credit in-state it is substantially cheaper than the Johns Hopkins route for the same credit count
- UMBC has a long-established behavior analysis faculty and a strong placement pipeline into Kennedy Krieger
- The out-of-state rate of $1,196 is close to the Hopkins in-state figure, so residency matters here
Johns Hopkins School of Education — M.S. in Special Education: Severe Disabilities and Applied Behavior Analysis
Baltimore; delivered on-campus and hybrid · Baltimore, MD · Hybrid delivery reduces the commute requirement
- Tuition
- $1,195 per credit hour, the same rate for residents and non-residents
- Length
- 36 credits, 2 years
- Format
- On-campus and hybrid
- Accreditation
- BCBA Pathway 2 coursework; Johns Hopkins School of Education
- Part-time
- Designed to accommodate practicing teachers and clinicians
- Pairs severe and multiple disabilities with applied behavior analysis, which is a narrower and more clinically demanding framing than a general ABA degree
- The Johns Hopkins affiliation with Kennedy Krieger is not incidental — the two institutions are closely tied
- A flat $1,195 per credit for everyone, so out-of-state students are not additionally penalized
- The most expensive route in the metro by a wide margin; the question is whether the name and the Kennedy Krieger proximity justify it
- Not ABAI-accredited — UMBC is the accredited option in this metro
Towson University — M.S. in Special Education: Teacher as Leader in Autism
Towson, north of Baltimore · Towson, MD · On-campus and online options; Towson sits on the Baltimore beltway
- Tuition
- $774 per credit hour in-state, $1,403 per credit hour out-of-state
- Length
- 36 credits, 2 years
- Format
- On-campus and online
- Accreditation
- BCBA Pathway 2 coursework; Towson University College of Education
- Part-time
- Built for practicing teachers
- The education-department route, with an autism concentration rather than a general behavior analysis framing
- The right choice if you intend to work inside Maryland school systems, where the degree reads as a special education credential
- Towson is Maryland's largest producer of teachers, so its district relationships across the metro are extensive
- At $774 per credit in-state it sits between UMBC and Johns Hopkins on price
- The out-of-state rate of $1,403 is the highest of the three; this is a program for Maryland residents
Cost of living
What it costs to live in Baltimore while you study
Baltimore is the cheaper half of the Baltimore-Washington corridor, and the gap is substantial: housing runs 18.2% above the national average here against 51.1% in the Washington metro forty miles south. The whole basket runs 4.5% above national. For someone who can work in Baltimore and live in Baltimore, that is a real advantage. For someone commuting to Washington work, it is the reason a great many people do.
Housing, 2024
118.2
18.2% above the national average
Everything, 2024
104.5
4.5% above the national average
Metro median pay covers
$55,263
of national-average spending
Housing runs 18.2% above the national average, which is the single biggest reason the overall cost of living lands where it does.
Both figures are BEA Regional Price Parities for Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD, 2024, where the national average is 100. Housing is the services-housing component; the second figure is the whole basket.
Housing price level
18.2% above the national average
BEA Regional Price Parity for housing, 2024; the Washington metro runs 51.1% above
All-items price level
4.5% above the national average
BEA Regional Price Parity, all items, 2024
Transit
MTA Light RailLink, Metro SubwayLink, MARC
MARC Penn and Camden lines connect to Washington; local coverage is adequate in the city and thin in the counties
Car
Required for most fieldwork
A seven-jurisdiction metro reaching from Carroll County to Annapolis
Cross-jurisdiction work
Washington metro, 40 miles south
Three separate boards with no reciprocity; a corridor caseload means multiple licenses
Tuition, UMBC M.A. (in-state)
$760 per credit hour
$1,196 per credit hour out-of-state; 36 credits
Tuition, Johns Hopkins M.S. (all students)
$1,195 per credit hour
Flat rate for residents and non-residents; 36 credits
Tuition, Towson M.S. (in-state)
$774 per credit hour
$1,403 per credit hour out-of-state; 36 credits
Clinical fieldwork
BCBA certification in Baltimore: where metro students do supervised fieldwork
There is a reason people move to Baltimore to train in this field, and it is a single institution. Kennedy Krieger holds an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, a LEND program and the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities — three separate federal designations — and its behavior-analytic inpatient and outpatient programs are among the most cited in the field. Around it sit Johns Hopkins Medicine, a large city school system and a set of well-resourced county districts.
Kennedy Krieger Institute
Kennedy Krieger runs an IDDRC jointly with Johns Hopkins, a LEND program, and the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities. Its severe behavior and neurobehavioral units take cases referred from across the country.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins Medicine is the metro's academic health system and Kennedy Krieger's clinical partner, giving trainees access to a research-affiliated environment few metros can match.
Baltimore City and county schools
Baltimore City Public Schools serves the urban core, and Baltimore County and Howard County run large, well-resourced special education programs.
Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities
Maryland's federally designated UCEDD, based at Kennedy Krieger, works across research, training, services and policy, and is the state's main interdisciplinary training route.
Private ABA agencies across central Maryland
Providers funded through Maryland Medicaid and commercial plans run in-home and center-based services from Carroll County to Annapolis, with the densest concentration in the Howard County corridor.
Hiring market
Major ABA employers across the Baltimore metro
Baltimore's employer market is unusually top-heavy: one institution sets the standard and much of the rest of the market is measured against it. Kennedy Krieger's neurobehavioral units take severe-behavior referrals nationally, which means Baltimore-trained behavior analysts see clinical presentations that clinicians in most metros never encounter. That is a career asset that does not show up in a salary figure.
Kennedy Krieger Institute
Developmental disabilities institute
Established 1937, affiliated with Johns Hopkins, and holding an IDDRC, a LEND program and Maryland's UCEDD. The defining employer and training site for behavior analysis in this metro.
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Academic health system
The metro's academic medical system and Kennedy Krieger's clinical partner, employing behavior analysts across pediatric and psychiatric services.
Baltimore City Public Schools
Public school district
The city system, employing behavior specialists across special education services, with a school calendar and Maryland public pension membership.
Baltimore County Public Schools
Public school district
One of the largest districts in Maryland, covering the suburban ring from Towson to Catonsville, with substantial special education provision.
Howard County Public School System
Public school district
A consistently high-performing district in the Columbia and Ellicott City corridor, and one of the better-resourced special education employers in the metro.
Side by side
Comparing the 3 Baltimore programs
The same programs as above, set against each other on the things that decide which one you apply to: how it is delivered, how long it runs, what it costs, and whether it asks for the GRE.
| Program | Format | Length | Tuition | GRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Maryland Baltimore County — M.A. in Human Services Psychology: Applied Behavior Analysis Catonsville, MD | On-campus with online options | 36 credits, 2 years | $760 per credit hour in-state, $1,196 per credit hour out-of-state | Not required |
| Johns Hopkins School of Education — M.S. in Special Education: Severe Disabilities and Applied Behavior Analysis Baltimore, MD | On-campus and hybrid | 36 credits, 2 years | $1,195 per credit hour, the same rate for residents and non-residents | Not required |
| Towson University — M.S. in Special Education: Teacher as Leader in Autism Towson, MD | On-campus and online | 36 credits, 2 years | $774 per credit hour in-state, $1,403 per credit hour out-of-state | Not required |
Metro pay
BCBA salary in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro
Metro median
$57,750
National median
$59,350
10th percentile
$43,530
90th percentile
$86,280
BLS metro median, May 2025
$57,750
$1,600 below the national median
Cost of living, 2024
104.5
4.5% above the national average
Worth nationally
$55,263
the same pay in national-average dollars
Because prices run 4.5% above the national average, $57,750 here goes about as far as $55,263 would nationally.
BLS does not publish a separate occupation for behavior analysts. This is the May 2025 median for SOC 21-1018 (Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors), the category BCBAs are counted in, which also contains counseling roles that typically pay less. Read it as a floor for the metro, not as BCBA pay. Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD. Cost of living is the BEA Regional Price Parity for the metro, all items, 2024, where the national average is 100. It is the most recent year BEA publishes, so it sits one year behind the wage figure. Prices: BEA Regional Price Parities.
The published figure for this metro is $57,750, the BLS OEWS May 2025 median for SOC 21-1018, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors, across the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro. That is $1,600 below the national median of $59,350 for the same code. BLS publishes no separate occupation for behavior analysts, and SOC 21-1018 also contains counseling roles requiring neither a master's nor board certification, so read $57,750 as a floor rather than as BCBA pay.
The 10th percentile is $43,530 and the 90th is $86,280, a spread of $42,750 that is among the narrower ones in this guide. A relatively high floor with a modest ceiling is the shape a market dominated by large institutional employers produces — and in Baltimore the dominant employers are a research institute, an academic health system and three large public school districts, all with structured pay scales.
On cost, prices run 4.5% above the national average, so $57,750 here goes about as far as $55,263 would nationally. Housing at 18.2% above the national average is well below the Washington metro's 51.1%, which is the comparison most people in this corridor are actually making. The honest summary: Baltimore pays modestly, costs moderately, and offers a training environment at Kennedy Krieger that is genuinely hard to get anywhere else. For national context see our BCBA salary guide.
Other cities
Other cities in Maryland
Baltimore is currently the only Maryland metro with its own guide. The state guide carries every program in Maryland plus the licensure picture.
Nearby metros
If you are flexible on metro
Baltimore and Washington are one commuting market with two very different cost structures and three licensing regimes between them. That comparison is the one most people in this corridor are weighing.
ABA Programs in Washington DC
Forty miles south, paying $65,270 against housing 51.1% above national, and needing up to three separate licenses.
ABA Programs in Philadelphia
Up I-95, in a state that licenses nobody, with a deeper program market and lower housing costs.
ABA Programs in Maryland
The full state picture: every Maryland program, the 2014 license, and Kennedy Krieger's place in the state's system.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
01How many ABA programs are in Baltimore?+
02Do I need a license to practice ABA in Baltimore?+
03What makes Kennedy Krieger significant for ABA training?+
04How much do BCBAs make in Baltimore?+
05Should I study in Baltimore or Washington?+
06Is Baltimore a good place to start a BCBA career?+
Sources
- University of Maryland Baltimore County, M.A. in Human Services Psychology: Applied Behavior Analysis
- Johns Hopkins School of Education, M.S. in Special Education, Severe Disabilities and Applied Behavior Analysis
- Towson University, M.S. in Special Education, Teacher as Leader in Autism concentration
- Kennedy Krieger Institute, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center
- BACB, U.S. Licensure of Behavior Analysts by State
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson MSA (SOC 21-1018)
- Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists
- ABAI Accredited Programs Directory