Cleveland City Guide
ABA Programs in Cleveland
Cleveland has a hybrid master's built around meeting twice a month, an online certificate for people who already hold a degree, and two competing children's hospital systems. It also has the fourth-cheapest housing of any metro in this guide. This guide covers the ABA programs in Cleveland, Ohio's COBA credential, and what the numbers actually mean here.
Key Takeaways
- 01John Carroll University's 39-credit M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis in University Heights meets online twice a month and in person twice a month — a hybrid structure designed around people already working full-time.
- 02John Carroll is one of very few programs anywhere that explicitly prepares graduates for both the BCBA and Ohio's COBA state credential. Most programs name only the national certification.
- 03Cleveland State University runs a 21-credit, seven-course Behavior Analysis Graduate Certificate fully online and asynchronous at $637 per credit in-state, for people who already hold a qualifying master's.
- 04John Carroll admits at a 2.75 minimum GPA, one of the lower thresholds in Ohio, which matters if your undergraduate record is uneven.
- 05Housing here runs 20.6% below the national average — fourth-cheapest of the fifty metros in this guide — turning a $59,630 median into about $63,504 in national terms.
Cleveland's two ABA offerings answer different questions, and neither is a conventional full-time campus program.
John Carroll University, in University Heights, runs a 39-credit M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis on a hybrid schedule: classes meet online twice a month and in person twice a month. That is an unusual structure and a deliberate one — it gives you a cohort and face-to-face teaching without requiring weekly attendance. John Carroll is also one of the few programs in the country whose program page explicitly states it prepares graduates for both BCBA certification and the Certified Ohio Behavior Analyst credential. Most programs mention only the national certification and leave the state credential to you.
Cleveland State University runs a 21-credit, seven-course Behavior Analysis Graduate Certificate, fully online and asynchronous, at $637 per credit for Ohio residents. It is not a degree — it satisfies the BCBA coursework requirement and not the degree requirement — so it only works if you already hold a qualifying master's.
The employer side is stronger than the program side. Cleveland has two competing children's hospital systems in the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, four county boards of developmental disabilities, and a set of long-established autism providers. And it is cheap: housing runs 20.6% below the national average, fourth-lowest in this guide.
Metro scope
Includes: Cleveland, Parma, Lakewood, Euclid, University Heights, Westlake, Strongsville, Mentor. The Cleveland metro, covering Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties — the city and its inner-ring suburbs from Lakewood to University Heights, the western suburbs through Westlake and Strongsville, and the eastern lakefront communities into Lake County.
Note: Ohio is a single-state metro here, and the licensing framework is the same one that governs Columbus and Cincinnati. Ohio licenses behavior analysts as Certified Ohio Behavior Analysts through the State Board of Psychology, under ORC Chapter 4783, effective September 29, 2013. Your active BCBA is the qualifying credential for the COBA, and you hold both — the national certification for insurance billing and practice, the state credential for legal practice authority in Ohio. Renewal is biennial, by August 31 of even-numbered years, with 23 continuing education hours every two years. What is locally distinctive is not the license but the county board system: Ohio's 88 county boards of developmental disabilities give this metro four separate public authorities, one per county, each planning and funding services in its own area.
The programs
Every one of the BCBA programs in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio
2 programs
John Carroll University — M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis
University Heights, eastern inner-ring suburbs · University Heights, OH · Hybrid: online twice a month, in person twice a month
- Tuition
- $925 per credit hour, the same rate for residents and non-residents
- Length
- 39 credits, 2 years
- Format
- Hybrid — online twice monthly plus in-person twice monthly
- Accreditation
- BCBA Pathway 2 coursework, with explicit preparation for the Ohio COBA credential; John Carroll University
- Part-time
- The twice-monthly structure is designed for people working full-time
- The twice-monthly hybrid schedule is the point: a cohort and in-person teaching without weekly attendance
- One of the few programs anywhere whose page states it prepares graduates for both BCBA certification and the Ohio COBA credential
- A 2.75 minimum GPA, the lowest admission threshold among Ohio's ABA programs
- A flat $925 per credit for residents and non-residents, so there is no out-of-state penalty
- A Jesuit private institution; not ABAI-accredited, and Ohio's accredited program is at Ohio State in Columbus
Cleveland State University — Behavior Analysis Graduate Certificate
Downtown Cleveland; delivered online · Cleveland, OH · No commute; fully online and asynchronous
- Tuition
- $637 per credit hour in-state, $638 per credit hour out-of-state
- Length
- 21 credits across seven courses, about 1 year at a flexible pace
- Format
- Fully online, asynchronous
- Accreditation
- BCBA Pathway 2 coursework sequence; CSU Levin College
- Part-time
- Flexible pacing is the default
- Seven courses, 21 credits, completable in about a year at a flexible pace
- A $1 difference between resident and non-resident rates, which is effectively no out-of-state penalty at all
- Fully asynchronous, so it fits around irregular working hours in a way a synchronous program cannot
- This is a certificate, not a degree: it satisfies the BCBA coursework requirement and not the degree requirement
- The right route only if you already hold a qualifying master's — otherwise the John Carroll M.S. is the option
Cost of living
What it costs to live in Cleveland while you study
Cleveland is among the cheapest large metros in the country: the BEA index puts the whole basket 6.1% below the national average and housing 20.6% below it, fourth-cheapest of the fifty metros in this guide. For a graduate student paying private-university tuition at John Carroll, that cost base does a great deal of work. The metro is lake-bounded and compact by Midwestern standards, so drive times between the four counties are manageable.
Housing, 2024
79.4
20.6% below the national average
Everything, 2024
93.9
6.1% below the national average
Metro median pay covers
$63,504
of national-average spending
Housing runs 20.6% below the national average, which is less of a factor here than the rest of the basket.
Both figures are BEA Regional Price Parities for Cleveland, OH, 2024, where the national average is 100. Housing is the services-housing component; the second figure is the whole basket.
Housing price level
20.6% below the national average
BEA Regional Price Parity for housing, 2024 — fourth-cheapest of the fifty metros here
All-items price level
6.1% below the national average
BEA Regional Price Parity, all items, 2024
Transit
RTA rapid transit and bus
The Red, Blue and Green lines serve the city and inner suburbs; the outer counties need a car
Car
Required for fieldwork
A four-county metro, each county with its own board of developmental disabilities
Tuition, John Carroll M.S. (all students)
$925 per credit hour
Flat rate for residents and non-residents; 39 credits
Tuition, Cleveland State certificate (in-state)
$637 per credit hour
$638 per credit hour out-of-state; 21 credits
Ohio COBA renewal
Biennial, by August 31 of even years
23 continuing education hours every two years
Clinical fieldwork
BCBA certification in Cleveland: where Northeast Ohio students do supervised fieldwork
Cleveland has something most metros do not: two large competing health systems, both with children's hospitals, in the same city. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals both run pediatric developmental and behavioral services, which gives trainees two distinct clinical routes rather than one. Beneath them, four county boards of developmental disabilities and a set of long-running autism providers fill out the market.
Cleveland Clinic Children's
Cleveland Clinic Children's runs pediatric developmental and behavioral services within one of the best-known health systems in the world.
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's
Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University, is the metro's second pediatric academic center and a separate route into hospital-based work.
Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities
Cuyahoga County BDD is one of Ohio's 88 county boards, and the metro has four — one each for Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain — giving the region several public authorities rather than one.
Monarch Center for Autism
Monarch Center for Autism, part of Bellefaire JCB, runs a school, day program and outreach services and is one of Northeast Ohio's longest-established autism providers.
Cleveland Metropolitan and suburban districts
Cleveland Metropolitan School District serves the urban core, and the inner-ring and western suburban districts host school-based placements across four counties.
Hiring market
Major ABA employers across the Cleveland metro
Two competing health systems and four county boards make for a more varied public and institutional market than most metros of this size offer. What Cleveland lacks is the research tier: Ohio's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities is the Nisonger Center at Ohio State in Columbus, not here. So the routes available locally are clinical, school-based and county public sector, rather than research-affiliated.
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
Pediatric academic medical center
Affiliated with Case Western Reserve University, running pediatric developmental and behavioral services with academic medical center benefits.
Cleveland Clinic Children's
Pediatric hospital within a major health system
The metro's second pediatric route, inside one of the largest and best-known health systems in the world.
Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities
County board of developmental disabilities
The largest of the metro's four county boards, planning and funding developmental disability services with Ohio public pension membership attached.
Monarch Center for Autism
Nonprofit autism services provider
Part of Bellefaire JCB, running a school, day programs and outreach across Northeast Ohio, and a long-established behavior-analytic employer.
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Public school district
The urban core district, employing behavior specialists across special education services.
Metro pay
BCBA salary in the Cleveland metro
Metro median
$59,630
National median
$59,350
10th percentile
$39,300
90th percentile
$79,650
BLS metro median, May 2025
$59,630
$280 above the national median
Cost of living, 2024
93.9
6.1% below the national average
Worth nationally
$63,504
the same pay in national-average dollars
Because prices run 6.1% below the national average, $59,630 here goes about as far as $63,504 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, Cleveland, OH. 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 $59,630, the BLS OEWS May 2025 median for SOC 21-1018, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors, across the Cleveland metro. That is $280 above 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 $59,630 as a floor rather than as BCBA pay.
Prices across the metro run 6.1% below the national average, so $59,630 goes about as far as $63,504 would nationally. Housing runs 20.6% below national, the fourth-cheapest in this guide. On a real basis Cleveland beats Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and every California metro on this site.
The weakness is the ceiling. The 90th percentile is $79,650, fifth-lowest of the fifty metros here, and the 10th is $39,300 — a spread of $40,350 that is among the narrowest. Cleveland is a metro where the money is predictable in both directions: a comfortable cost base, and not much scope to climb. That suits some careers and not others, and it is worth deciding which yours is before you settle. For national context see our BCBA salary guide.
Other cities
Other cities in Ohio
We also cover 2 other metros in Ohio. If you can commute, comparing them is worth ten minutes — the program list changes, but so does the fieldwork market, and that is the half your location actually constrains.
Nearby metros
If you are flexible on metro
Ohio's three metros are similar in size and share the COBA credential, but they differ in what they offer institutionally. Columbus has the accredited program and the state's UCEDD; Pittsburgh is two hours east in a state that licenses nobody.
ABA Programs in Columbus
Two hours south, with Ohio's only ABAI-accredited ABA master's and the Nisonger Center.
ABA Programs in Pittsburgh
Two hours east, where Pennsylvania does not license behavior analysts and housing is cheaper still.
ABA Programs in Ohio
The full state picture: every Ohio program, the COBA credential, and the county board system.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
01How many ABA programs are in Cleveland?+
02Do I need a license to practice ABA in Cleveland?+
03What does John Carroll's twice-monthly hybrid schedule actually mean?+
04How much do BCBAs make in Cleveland?+
05Where do Cleveland ABA students do supervised fieldwork?+
06Is Cleveland a good place to start a BCBA career?+
Sources
- John Carroll University, M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis
- Cleveland State University, Behavior Analysis Graduate Certificate
- Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4783, Certified Ohio Behavior Analysts
- BACB, U.S. Licensure of Behavior Analysts by State
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Cleveland MSA (SOC 21-1018)
- Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities
- ABAI Accredited Programs Directory