BCBA & RBT Salary in Arkansas (2026)
From live job-posting data + Medicaid rate records. Updated July 2026.
This page is for ABA practice owners in Arkansas. It shows what the market pays right now, who is hiring, and why. Use it to set offers that keep your team.
Posting-Disclosed Pay
| Role | Median (annualized) | Range | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| BCBA | $88,750 | $80,000 – $121,939 | 6 Arkansas postings that disclose pay |
| RBT | $44,720 | $40,040 – $44,720 | 3 Arkansas postings that disclose pay |
Pay data comes from public LinkedIn postings that state a number. Hourly rates are annualized at 2,080 hours. Small samples are supplemented with national data.
Who Is Hiring in Arkansas
Most active employers (BCBA roles): SpringBoard ABA, KIDS ABA Services, BlueSprig, Acadia Healthcare, Conway Behavioral Health Hospital.
Busiest hiring cities: Little Rock, Conway, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro.
Working as a Behavior Analyst in Arkansas
Arkansas only just started regulating behavior analysts at the state level. Act 432 of 2025 created a “Registered Behavior Analyst” credential through the Arkansas Psychology Board, and it’s easy to misread what it actually does. This is a title-protection registration, not a full scope-of-practice license. The law only restricts who can call themselves a “registered behavior analyst” — it does not stop an unregistered person from practicing ABA in Arkansas. Don’t confuse this state credential with the BACB’s Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) certification; the names sound alike but they’re unrelated.
To register, a BCBA or BCBA-D needs current BACB certification, a passed criminal background check, and an application fee capped at $200. Registration lasts two years and renews for a fee capped at $150, with no extra state CE required beyond normal BACB recertification. A temporary registration is available for BACB-certified clinicians providing short-term services in Arkansas, and reciprocity exists for behavior analysts already licensed in a comparable state. Compared to states with full licensure and separate CE mandates, that’s a light compliance load — cheap to get and cheap to keep. As of this writing, the Board’s implementing rules were still moving through the proposed-rule process, so confirm current application status with the Board before counting on a fast turnaround.
RBT vs. BT in Arkansas
The credential that actually controls who can bill is the RBT, not the new state registration. Arkansas Medicaid requires anyone delivering ABA therapy treatment services as a technician to hold current BACB Registered Behavior Technician certification, working under a BCBA enrolled with Arkansas Medicaid. There’s a narrow grace period: someone still completing RBT training and testing can be treated as provisional for up to six months, but if they haven’t certified by then, they’re barred from providing ABA therapy services until they do.
For job seekers, that makes RBT certification real leverage in Arkansas — it’s the line between billable and not. For owners, it sets the staffing model: budget for a six-month runway to get new techs certified, and build supervision capacity around Medicaid’s caseload caps. A supervising BCBA is limited to 12 BCaBAs/RBTs at a time, or a caseload requiring no more than 25 billable supervision hours a week, whichever is lower, plus in-person observation of at least 5% of each tech’s treatment hours and one observed session every 30 days. Medicaid also caps any single clinician — BCBA, BCaBA, or RBT — at 50 billable ABA treatment hours a week, which sets a hard ceiling on how much any one FTE can bill regardless of caseload.
Common Questions
How much does a BCBA make in Arkansas?
Job postings in Arkansas that disclose pay show a median around $88,750 per year.
Is it hard to hire BCBAs in Arkansas?
A LinkedIn search for BCBA roles in Arkansas returns 1,000+ results from the past month (including related roles). The busiest hiring markets are Little Rock, Conway, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro.
What drives BCBA pay in a state?
Three things: Medicaid and commercial reimbursement rates, how many certified analysts live in the state, and demand from autism prevalence and insurance mandates.
Compare neighboring states: Texas · Tennessee · Missouri · Oklahoma · Louisiana