Florida ABA

By Amy Polick

The Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) has had a successful past few years – 2021 and 2022 – post-COVID. Like many other associations, FABA faced financial challenges throughout COVID, and we were able to persevere and come out of the pandemic stronger than when we started. In 2020 we held our first virtual conference, and in 2021 and 2022 we moved back to in-person options and maintained the virtual access for those who preferred to remain virtual for events. These hybrid events allowed us to maintain strong membership and attendance to our conference events. In 2021, we hosted our 41st Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida with in-person attendance at the JW Marriott conference venue and online attendees joining via Behavior Live. Our 2021 conference included a total of ~1700 participants, with 1200 in-person and 500 online. In 2022, we hosted our 42nd Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida as a hybrid event in partnership with the Behavior Live team. The in-person attendees joined our events at the Sawgrass Marriott and others joined online through Behavior Live. In 2022, we served ~1900 participants, with 1400 in-person and 500 online. These numbers of attendees are typical of what we usually saw in our pre-COVID conference attendances (between 1500-1800) with room for growth. For the upcoming 2023 year, we are actively planning our 43rd Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida in September 2023. FABA also regularly holds a smaller conference every Spring in Orlando, which is coordinated by the leaders of FABAs local chapters – called CoFABA. This Spring interested parties can join us in May 2023
for CoFABA. Outside of conference activities, FABA’s Board of Directors and its Legislative and Public Policy Committee continue to be guided by our lobbyist and attorney Eric Prutsman, and our Public Policy Director, Kevin Murdock, to serve the organization for state-related legislative and policy matters. The legislative committee, Kevin, and Eric have been extra busy monitoring issues in the legislature related to: 1) funding and insurance coverage of ABA services (we have been active in AHCA meetings and leading discussions about policies for services), 2) expansion of and access to ABA services (we worked on an RBT access bill that passed in 2022), and FABA continues to monitor policies regarding restraint and seclusion in public schools. FABA is also actively considering pursuing licensure and also has a very active Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, which complements our existing Multicultural Special Interest Group of FABA. 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.