Does supervision time count as unrestricted hours?

It depends on what you were doing, not on the fact that a supervisor was present. Time spent on program review, data analysis, feedback or planning is unrestricted activity, and it counts toward your unrestricted total as well as your supervision requirement. Time your supervisor spends observing you deliver direct implementation is supervised, but the activity itself is restricted.

Is group supervision restricted or unrestricted?

Either, depending on how the session is spent. Case presentation, group data analysis and journal review are unrestricted. Time spent rehearsing or running a protocol is restricted. A single group session can contain both, which is why group supervision needs to be logged on both axes rather than filed under one label.

Why does my unrestricted percentage look wrong?

The most common cause is a tracker that offers only one group supervision field. If group time never reaches the unrestricted total, your percentage reads lower than it is. If all group time is filed as unrestricted, it reads higher than it is. Both make the number unreliable, and people usually end up keeping a second tally by hand.

Am I double counting if an hour is both supervised and unrestricted?

No. Supervised and unrestricted answer two different questions about the same hour. One hour of individual supervision spent on program review is one hour of fieldwork, counted once, that is both supervised and unrestricted.

What percentage of my hours must be unrestricted?

For BCBA fieldwork under the 2027 standards, at least 60 percent of your total hours must be unrestricted. For BCaBA the minimum is 40 percent. The requirement is measured on actual clock hours, not on weighted hours.

Restricted vs Unrestricted Hours: Where Supervision Counts

Home › The Fieldwork Guide › Restricted vs Unrestricted Hours

If you have ever finished a month, looked at your unrestricted percentage and thought “that cannot be right,” the cause is usually the same. Your tracker is answering one question about each hour when the BACB asks two. Here is how the two questions work, why group supervision is where most tools break, and what the correct number looks like.

In this guide Two questions, not one Where each hour lands What that looks like in a real log The same month, counted three ways Seeing what you have left

Two questions, not one

Every hour you log gets classified twice, and the two answers are independent of each other.

Who was there? You alone, you with your supervisor one to one, or you in a supervision group. This decides whether the hour counts toward your supervision percentage.

What were you doing? Restricted activity means delivering direct implementation. Unrestricted activity is everything else: assessment, analysis, planning, program design, training, feedback. This decides which side of your 60/40 split the hour falls on.

A tracker that collapses these into a single list forces a wrong answer somewhere. Group supervision is where it usually shows up, because one group session can be spent on either kind of work.

Where each hour lands

Restricted activity

Unrestricted activity

On your ownIndependent hours

Direct therapyRunning acquisition programs with a client, collecting trial by trial data.

Analysis and planningGraphing data, revising targets, writing the behavior plan, preparing caregiver training.

One to oneIndividual supervision

Observed sessionYour supervisor watches you deliver direct therapy with the client.

Program reviewReviewing data together, receiving feedback, planning the next phase.

In a groupGroup supervision

Practicing implementationGroup time spent rehearsing or running a protocol rather than analyzing it.

Case discussionPresenting a case, analyzing group data, journal and ethics review.

One entry, both totals. You log the hour once and pick the category. That single entry raises your supervised total and the correct side of your restricted and unrestricted split at the same time.

The same hour appears in both figures. That is not double counting, because they answer different questions.

Want this applied to specific situations? We worked through twenty real scenarios, including the ones that catch people out, in Unrestricted Activities: 20 Worked Examples.

What that looks like in a real log

This is the monthly activity log in FieldworkABA. Independent hours split into restricted and unrestricted, and supervised hours split four ways: individual and group, each restricted and unrestricted. Look at 15 July and 22 July, two group sessions in the same month, landing on opposite sides.

Monthly activity log showing columns for Independent Restricted and Unrestricted, and Supervised split into Individual Restricted, Individual Unrestricted, Group Restricted and Group Unrestricted, with a totals row. — A month of fieldwork in FieldworkABA. The totals row carries all six categories separately: 28.00 independent restricted, 18.00 independent unrestricted, 1.50 individual restricted, 4.00 individual unrestricted, 1.00 group restricted and 1.50 group unrestricted.

The same month, counted three ways

That month holds 54.00 hours, of which 2.50 were group supervision: 1.50 on case discussion and 1.00 on protocol practice. How a tracker handles those 2.50 hours changes the number that has to reach 60 percent.

Reads too low

Group time never reaches the unrestricted total

40.74%22.00 unrestricted hours

The 1.50 hours of case discussion go missing from the split, so you read further from the target than you are. This is the version people patch with a spreadsheet on the side.

Reads too high

All group time filed as unrestricted

45.37%24.50 unrestricted hours

The hour of protocol practice is counted as unrestricted when it was restricted work. The number flatters you, and it will not hold up if the record is reviewed.

Correct

Group time split into restricted and unrestricted

43.52%23.50 unrestricted hours

1.50 hours unrestricted and 1.00 hour restricted, both still counted as supervised. This is what FieldworkABA shows, with nothing to add up afterward.

A few points either way looks small in one month. Across a full 2,000 hour record it is the difference between finishing on target and finding out late that you are not, when restricted hours cannot be removed and the only fix is logging many more unrestricted hours.

Seeing what you have left

The Total Hours page answers the question you actually have. Total hours against your goal, your restricted and unrestricted split against the 60 percent requirement, and your supervision percentage, all from the entries you already logged.

Three summary charts: total hours completed against the 2,000 hour goal, restricted versus unrestricted hours with the 60 percent requirement, and supervised hours as a percentage. — The unrestricted card states the requirement, flags when you are below it, and notes that the judgement is made on actual clock hours rather than weighted hours.

Underneath, every month is listed with its own totals, so you can see which months pulled your ratio down and by how much.

Month by month table listing total hours, independent, supervised, supervision percentage, restricted, unrestricted and unrestricted percentage for each month, with unweighted and weighted totals. — Each month with its own supervision and unrestricted percentages, plus unweighted and weighted totals. Every figure opens to the entries behind it.

See it with your own hours

Import what you have already logged, or start a month from scratch. Your first 14 days are free.

Try FieldworkABA

Educational and independent. FieldworkABA is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the BACB. Requirements can change; always confirm against the current handbook and your supervisor. Figures shown come from a demonstration account. See also our full Fieldwork A to Z and the guide to tracking fieldwork hours. BCBA, BCaBA, RBT, and BACB are registered trademarks of the BACB.

Restricted vs unrestricted: where your supervision hours land