Last November, Jeremy Forbis the superintendent at the Wyoming Life Resource Center (WLRC) expressed concern to me that due to a gap in the Wyoming statutes his ability to recruit behavioral analysts (BCBA) had hit a road block. Behavioral analysts help people with behavioral challenges cope in their environments, and are essential in helping those at the WLRC, the Wyoming State Hospital (WSH) adapt to their environment. School districts use BCBA’s to help develop individual education plans (IEP) for students in special education. BCBA’s who traditionally have a master’s degree in counseling, psychology, or social work have been providing services in the state of decades and have provided this service without the need to be licensed professionally because the state had never required it, although most other states do have a licensure requirement. When a search of the state’s statutes revealed that the only reference to behavioral analysis was found in the Psychologist’s Act it was determined only those who were Doctors of Psychology could provide behavioral analysis. This determination created a significant number of problems.

Responding to Superintendent Forbis’s concern, after Thanksgiving I reached out to the Board of Psychology and found they were aware of the problem and felt it needed to be corrected, so through the month of December I worked with the Board of Psychology and their association, the association for Board Certified Behavioral Analysts, the Wyoming Dept. of Health, and the State Board of Education to create a practice act for the BCBA’s in the psychologist’s act. This was a vigorous effort by all who participated that resulted in House Bill 0110, which was passed into law during the budget session. The passing of this bill provides the ability for BCBA’s to be licensed to practice in the state with the traditional educational requirements for that profession.