Practice question
Ethical and Professional Issues

Practice within scope of competence and seek consultation.

Original BCBA scenario practice question with answer explanation and wrong-choice notes.

Question

Difficulty: medium. Skill: apply. Type: ethics professional judgment.

A caregiver asks the BCBA to treat throwing materials in a specialized area where the BCBA has no training or supervised experience. What should the BCBA do first? The caregiver asks for a rationale that can be written in the treatment note.

A
Accept immediately because all behavior is within scope
B
Refer, collaborate, or obtain appropriate supervision before providing services

Correct answer

C
Use a familiar procedure without assessment
D
Tell the caregiver behavior analysis can never help

Explanation

Answer B

Ethical practice requires working within competence and arranging consultation, referral, or supervised training when needed.

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

Behavioral relevance does not eliminate competence requirements.

C
Choice C

Familiarity with a procedure does not establish competence for the case.

D
Choice D

The issue is competence and collaboration, not whether ABA may be relevant.

Study tags

EthicsScope of CompetenceDocumentation

Practice interactively

Try more BCBA scenario questions in the interactive practice mode, then use review tools to track missed domains and flagged items.

Start practiceMore free questions