Florida ABA

By Melissa Olive and Kim Lucker Greene

Like many state associations, the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) has undergone change over the past year. In the middle of 2022, FABA hired two part-time Co-Directors of Public Policy: Kevin Murdock and Melissa “Missy” Olive. In May of 2023, FABA moved Missy from Public Policy over to serve as FABA’s Executive Director on a part-time basis. Also in 2023, FABA entered into a contractual agreement with Behavior Live to manage the annual FABA Conference and the Co-FABA Conference.

With the help of Behavior Live, FABAs Annual Conference continues to be one of the strengths of the organization. In 2023, we hosted our conference in Orlando, Florida. We had approximately 1,800 people in attendance in person and another 400 attending online through Behavior Live. Additionally, Behavior Live allows access to our sessions and workshops for 12 months post conference. As a result, all registrants can return to view material that they didn’t access during the conference. Moreover, people who did not attend the conference can also purchase content as a package or item by item. Our 2024 conference will be held in Miami and we are pleased to be offering a keynote and several sessions in Spanish. And finally, as a way of engaging the many RBTs in Florida, FABA will be offering an RBT Track on the Saturday of the Annual Conference, along with a track for Spanish speaking attendees.

FABA also regularly holds a conference every Spring for FABAs local chapters. The conference is called CoFABA for the “Chapters of FABA.” The entire conference is coordinated and organized by the leaders of the local chapters.

Outside of conference activities, FABA’s Board of Directors (BOD) and its Legislative and Public Policy Committee continue to be guided by our lobbyist and general counsel, Eric Prutsman. We are excited to begin the important task of strategic planning. The BOD has selected Peter Dams of Dams and Associates to guide the Board and Committee Chairs through this important process.

The Public Policy Committee, likely the most active FABA committee, thanks to its Director, Kevin Murdock, and Chairs, Mary Riordan, Matt Potak, and Nicki Postma, has been exceptionally busy. The committee developed policies and procedures to guide its work. That process resulted in several areas of advocacy that are led by each of the chairs. These include Education, Insurance/Medicaid, Professional and Ethical Issues, Adult Services, and Juvenile Justice. Across the workgroups, FABA has hosted multiple Town Halls with the assistance of Behavior Live. These Town Halls served to support our members and the community on important issues such as the iConnect from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) and training on the new Department of Labor Law regarding Independent Contractors.

The Education Workgroup has been working with local and state departments to improve access to ABA within the school setting. With the passage of the amendments to the RBT bill in 2023, more students can access their medically necessary services with an RBT in school. This is not without headaches, however. Thus, the workgroup will continue to educate and advocate to ensure that the processes are appropriate across all Florida counties and schools.

The Insurance/Medicaid workgroup has been busy trying to support members who had to adjust to new Medicaid requirements that launched in October.
We are most excited about an increase to two service rates within Medicaid. However, the rates were small. Thus, FABA continues to meet with staff from AHCA
as a process of collaboration that should ultimately result in improved access to care as well as a hope for increased rates for providers.

The Ethical and Professional workgroup has the daunting task of addressing all the issues around the massive amounts of fraud in Florida. Miami/Dade County area of Florida now has more RBTs than the entire state of California. This will no doubt be an inter-agency effort as the fraud not only impacts Federal and State Medicaid funds, but multiple state departments are also affected such as the Department of Labor, Unemployment, the IRS, and Workers’ Compensation Program. Last, but not least, is the adult services workgroup, also called APD. The workgroup has collaborated with the APD program regularly to improve the rollout of the iConnect program. FABA is so grateful that Mary lives in Tallahassee and can attend hearings and workshops on behalf of FABA. FABAs Membership Committee is focused on increasing FABAs membership, increasing member engagement, and improving benefits for members. We want our members to know that FABA is more than just an annual conference. Additionally, and based on the member survey, the Membership Committee would like to revise the FABA Constitution to allow for RBTs to serve as non-voting members on the BOD. Additionally, with the new RBT requirements announced by the BACB, FABA would love to offer continuing education for RBTs which includes a new RBT track on Saturday at the annual conference.

FABA also has a very active Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which complements our existing Multicultural Special Interest Group of FABA. The DEI Committee developed a DEI Mission Statement last year and identified a DEI award to begin at the 2024 Annual Conference.

Looking forward, FABA plans to continue their advocacy efforts for practitioners of behavior analysis services in Florida. FABA’s Board of Directors and Legislative committee work throughout the year to maintain our right to provide behavior analysis services in Florida and we continually work to fulfill our mission of promoting the “ethical, humane, and effective application of behavior principles in all segments of society.” By doing so, we plan to continue to disseminate our science throughout the state and alleviate barriers that practitioners face across Florida.