Clinical Program Director Responsibilities

A Clinical Program Director (referred to hereafter as program director) must posses a master’s degree in behavior analysis or a related field as specified in California Title 17 regulations as well as least three years experience in the field. At least 12 units of undergraduate or graduate behavioral coursework is required or the equivalent.

The program director for each client holds the ultimate responsibility for program design and modifications to meet the individual needs of each child. The program director supervises the children directly while in therapy and supervises the Bachelor level Behavioral Consultant on each case.

The program director designs and implements initial assessments, designs programs, designs training materials for workshops, presents training workshops for staff and parents, and oversees therapists in program implementation, data analyses and updating of client programs.

Every program director is carried under the liability of Bridges.

The program director performs functional analyses of problem behaviors and designs interventions for these behaviors, trains staff in their implementation, and assesses the effectiveness of the intervention.

The program director analyses each child’s data and modifies each child’s program accordingly to move the child farther in a given procedure or to modify a procedure if needed.

The program director may design new procedures and programs to implement to address client skill deficits and/or behavior excesses.

The program director is responsible for generating assessment reports, functional analyses reports, transition assessment and reports, and any other reports that child’s program may require. A program director will attend IEPs or other meetings as required.

The program director may act as the liaison between Bridges and any additional service providers such as speech therapists and occupational therapists, etc.,  as required.

Certification by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), or documented evidence of equivalent education, professional training, and supervised experience in applied behavior analysis is required.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts are preferred.

The clinical program director must demonstrate competency in the following areas:

1. Experience in assuming the lead role in designing and implementing comprehensive ABA programming for individuals with autism. The experience should involve designing and implementing individualized programs to build skills and promote independent functioning in each of the following areas: "learning to learn" (e.g., observing, listening, following instructions, imitating); communication (vocal and nonvocal); social interaction; self-care; school readiness; academics; self-preservation; motor; play and leisure; community living; self-monitoring; and pre-vocational and vocational skills.
2. Providing ABA programming to at least 8 individuals with autism spectrum disorders who represent a range of repertoires and ages.
3. Employing an array of scientifically validated behavior analytic teaching procedures, including (but not limited to) discrete trial instruction, modeling, incidental teaching and other "naturalistic" teaching methods, small group instruction, activity-embedded instruction, task analysis, and chaining.
4. Incorporating the following techniques into skill-building programs: prompting; error correction; reinforcement and manipulation of motivational variables; stimulus control (including discrimination training); preference assessments; and choice procedures.
5. Employing a wide array of strategies to program for and assess both skill acquisition and skill generalization.
6. Modifying instructional programs based on frequent, systematic evaluation of direct observational data.
7. Conducting functional assessments (including functional analyses) of challenging behavior and becoming familiar with the array of considerations that would indicate certain assessment methods over others.
8. Designing and implementing programs to reduce stereotypic, disruptive, and destructive behavior based on systematic analysis of the variables that cause and maintain the behavior and matching treatment to the determined function(s) of the behavior.
9. Incorporating differential reinforcement of appropriate alternative responses into behavior reduction programs and efforts to teach replacement skills, based on the best available research evidence.
10. Modifying behavior reduction programs based on frequent, systematic evaluation of direct observational data.
11. Providing training in ABA methods and other support services to the families of at least 8 individuals with autism.
12. Providing training and supervision to at least 5 professionals, paraprofessionals, or college students providing ABA services to individuals with autism.
13. Collaborating effectively with professionals from other disciplines and with family members to promote consistent intervention and to maximize outcomes.

Duties and responsibilities of the program directors also include (but are not limited to)

1. Interviewing and training behavioral consultants.
2. Evaluating the performance of behavioral consultants and recommending raises as appropriate
3. Prescribe (in line with the research) the total number of hours each team is to provide based in the child’s needs.
4. Designing the major techniques (drills) the teams will use.
5. Use the established discipline procedures for subordinates when needed.
6. Determining and often designing the techniques used by each team for each client.  This is done via written communication left in visit notes as well as formal reports.

They may negotiate with funding agencies and families to continue funding for programs.

They must be aware of current research and be able to cite research as well as education and experience to justify a given plan of action for any particular client team.

They make independent recommendations based on their education and training for the design of each child’s program, and are solely responsible for program design. Program design determines exactly what procedures each member of the team implements with the client. It is uniquely designed and not based exclusively on a set “list” of options to be administered. Most teams have many programs that are unique to that child, and these were all designed by the clinical program director.

Other duties may be assigned to clinical program directors that are not specified on this description.

Page Updated June 2007