ABA Programs in Texas (2026): Three ABAI-Accredited Programs and a Dual-Credentialing License

Why Texas Recognizes Two Credentials

Most behavior-analyst licensure states accept exactly one national credential: the BCBA, issued by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Texas accepts two. The TDLR application page lists both qualifying paths explicitly: hold a current BCBA (or BCBA-D) issued by the BACB, or hold a current Qualified Behavior Analyst credential issued by the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis Credentialing Board. Either one satisfies the qualifying-credential requirement for a Texas Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA).

Dual recognition is recent rather than long-standing: the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation voted to approve QABA as a certifying entity on December 6, 2024, amending Tex. Occ. Code § 506.002(2). Before that date, only the BCBA was accepted.

The practical consequences for a Texas ABA student. The BCBA is the historical industry-standard credential. Every U.S. licensure state recognizes it. It carries the most job-listing match (most employer listings ask for "BCBA" by name). The QBA is younger, with narrower geographic recognition, but accepts a broader set of related master's degrees as qualifying coursework, which can matter for students whose master's isn't a pure ABA degree.

If you plan to practice only in Texas, either credential gets you to the LBA. If you plan to move during your career, especially to a coastal state, the BCBA is the safer hedge. Most prospective Texas students still pursue the BCBA path for that reason. The QBA path is most useful when you're an established professional whose master's is in a related field (special education, school psychology, counseling) and you want to add behavior-analyst licensure without a second master's.

BCBA Route vs. QBA Route

The cleanest way to think about the choice: the BCBA is the safe default if you might ever leave Texas; the QBA is the practical option if your existing graduate degree is a related field and the QABA accepts it as qualifying coursework without a second master's. For most Texas ABA-master's students fresh out of UNT, UTSA, Texas A&M, or St. Edward's, the BCBA is the right call because the program is already built around BCBA exam preparation.

BCBA Requirements in Texas: TDLR Licensure Mechanics

Texas has licensed behavior analysts since September 1, 2017, when SB 589 took effect. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation administers the program, which is unusual; most state behavior-analyst boards sit inside a health or education agency, not a general licensing department. Here's what TDLR asks for, per the official application page:

• Active BCBA / BCBA-D (from BACB) or QBA (from QABA), in good standing — national certification serves as proof of qualifying coursework, supervised experience, and required examinations
• Master's degree from an accredited institution
• Background check (fingerprint-based criminal history)
• $165 initial LBA fee ($110 for LaBA)
• Disclosure of any prior discipline from another state's board or national credentialing body
• At renewal: HHSC-approved human-trafficking prevention training (see the renewal section below)

One detail worth knowing about: SB 589 includes a practice exemption for Licensed Psychologists and a handful of other professionals already authorized to deliver behavior analysis. If you hold one of those credentials in Texas, you do not need to add a separate LBA to practice. If you don't, you do.

The Four-Metro Texas Market

Texas's ABA job market is concentrated in four metro areas, and the differences between them matter for where you pick a program and where you take your first BCBA job:

Houston has a deep BCBA employer base: Texas Children's Hospital plus BlueSprig (headquartered in Houston, the largest ABA provider in Texas with 15 Houston-area centers per BlueSprig's locations page), plus Behavioral Innovations and the major ISDs (Houston ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, Katy ISD). DFW has Cook Children's in Fort Worth, the founding region of Behavioral Innovations (founded 2000, Addison HQ), and the Dallas, Plano, Frisco, and Allen ISDs. Austin's autism-agency ecosystem is younger but growing, anchored by Dell Children's and Austin ISD. San Antonio combines large ISDs (Northside ISD, North East ISD) with a federal-pay-band employer (Brooke Army Medical Center) that doesn't exist in the other three metros.

ABA Master's Programs and BCBA Programs in Texas

Texas has more than a dozen master's programs that lead to BCBA exam eligibility. The five below are the most-frequently-cited by Texas BCBAs. UHCL, UNT and UTSA carry ABAI Accreditation (the three ABAI-Accredited ABA master's in Texas per the ABAI directory); Texas A&M, St. Edward's, and Texas Tech are BCBA Pathway 2 / coursework-aligned. Verified 2025 first-attempt BCBA pass rates are included for transparency, and the spread is meaningful.

Quick patterns from the table. Both ABAI-Accredited Texas programs (UNT, UTSA) are public, on-campus, and don't publish flat program totals — refer to each school's tuition calculator. Texas Tech publishes a per-credit range of roughly $415 to $500/cr across 36 cr; confirm the current rate with the TTU program page before estimating a total. St. Edward's is the only private flat-tuition option at $1,242/cr × 30 = $37,260, but its first-attempt pass rate was 40% in 2025 (21% in 2024), well below the others and worth weighing carefully.

The Three ABAI-Accredited Texas Programs

The University of North Texas Department of Behavior Analysis runs the program that first earned ABAI accreditation in the United States in 1993, per SABA's Enduring Programmatic Contributions citation. UNT has held continuous ABAI accreditation ever since; the current cycle runs through Dec 31, 2028 (renewed 2023).

The newer entry is UTSA, which the ABAI Accreditation Board voted to grant full accreditation in 2024, also through Dec 31, 2028. UTSA's Comprehensive concentration embeds the BACB-standard 2,000 supervised fieldwork hours inside the master's at university-partner clinical sites. That's an important program-design difference: at UNT, you complete coursework and arrange supervised fieldwork hours separately; at UTSA's Comprehensive track, the fieldwork is built into the program.

If you want a research-track career, a doctoral path, or eventual faculty appointment in behavior analysis, UNT is still the Texas program to target — deepest research roster, strongest doctoral pipeline. If you want ABAI-Accredited training with practicum hours embedded inside the master's at one institution, UTSA is now a real alternative without leaving Texas. Outside those two cases, a cheaper online program at Texas A&M or Texas Tech makes sense; just weigh the pass-rate spread before enrolling at St. Edward's.

The Human-Trafficking CE Requirement

Per the TDLR renewal page, Texas LBA renewal requires an HHSC-approved human-trafficking prevention training course. The requirement is statewide and applies to multiple licensed professions, not just behavior analysts. The training itself is short (typically one hour) and widely available through state-approved providers. Most BCBAs satisfy it through a low-cost online course and upload the certificate at renewal.

Beyond the human-trafficking training, Texas LBA renewal accepts your active BCBA or QBA certification as proof of CE completion — TDLR has not piled additional state-specific CE quotas on top of the BACB's already-substantial renewal load. The practical effect: if you're on schedule with your BCBA CE, you're close to on schedule with your Texas LBA. Renew the LBA at $165 every two years.

BCBA Salary Across Texas Metros

BLS does not publish a stand-alone behavior-analyst occupation, so Texas state-level salary data for BCBAs is best read from a combination of BLS SOC 21-1018 data (which mixes BCBAs with counselors who often earn less) and job-board aggregator data on BCBA-titled positions. For national BCBA pay context, see the BCBA salary guide. The metro ranges below are job-board aggregates, not BLS:

• Houston BCBA range (job-board): approximately $72,000 to $88,000, with experienced clinical leads at large agencies reaching $95,000 to $110,000
• Dallas / Fort Worth BCBA range (job-board): approximately $70,000 to $86,000, with strong demand for school-based BCBAs in Plano, Frisco, and Allen ISDs
• Austin BCBA range (job-board): approximately $68,000 to $84,000
• San Antonio BCBA range (job-board): approximately $66,000 to $80,000, with military-health employers (BAMC) offering federal-pay-band positions outside this range
• Texas RBT statewide (job-board): approximately $36,000 to $48,000 (see the RBT career guide for the entry-level path)

Texas has no state income tax, which adds roughly 4 to 6% to take-home pay relative to states like California, New York, and Massachusetts. Cost of living is below the national average in San Antonio and Houston, near-average in DFW, and above-average in Austin (especially housing). Run a take-home-pay comparison before you assume a coastal-metro offer at a higher nominal salary is actually better.

Workforce, Shortages, and Loan Repayment

Picking Your Texas Path

Five starting points and what each one points to:

• "I want ABAI-Accredited training and the strongest research-track placement in Texas." UNT in Denton. First ABAI-accredited program in the US (1993), 100% first-attempt BCBA pass rate for the campus M.S. in 2025.
• "I want ABAI-Accredited training with a 2,000-hour practicum built into the master's." UTSA in San Antonio. Full accreditation granted 2024, Comprehensive concentration embeds the BACB fieldwork standard inside the program.
• "I need fully online with the lowest published in-state per-credit rate." Texas Tech M.Ed. SPED with ABA concentration at roughly $415 to $500/cr across 36 cr. Texas A&M's online M.Ed. is also fully online but doesn't publish a flat per-credit rate.
• "I already have a master's in special education or psychology and just need ABA coursework." Consider the QBA route, which is structurally more accepting of related-field master's degrees as qualifying. Confirm your specific degree against the QABA's coursework requirements before committing.
• "I'm already a Texas Licensed Psychologist." Check the SB 589 practice exemption before applying for an LBA. You may not need one.

For broader national context, browse our ABA programs by state directory, or the best online ABA programs ranking for non-Texas online options.