Colorado creates a Behavior Analyst Licensing Board; the practice license itself waits until July 1, 2028

Governor Polis signed House Bill 26-1425, the Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act, on June 2, 2026. The enrolled act creates the Colorado Behavior Analyst Licensing Board, adds a new article 247 to title 12 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, and builds a full licensing structure for behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts on top of national certification from an entity such as the BACB. The act's own effective-date section splits its provisions into two groups. Most of the act, the Board's creation and powers, the licensure application and qualification process, the fingerprint-based criminal history check, licensure by endorsement, scope of practice, continuing competency, disciplinary grounds, rulemaking authority, and the professional liability insurance requirement, took effect immediately upon passage, meaning June 2, 2026. A narrower set of sections, specifically the license-required and title-protection provision, the license issuance-and-renewal provision, the supervision-of-assistant-behavior-analysts provision, and the unauthorized-practice-and-penalties provision, do not take effect until July 1, 2028. In plain terms: the Board exists now, and it can write rules and begin processing the structure around licensure now, but the actual legal requirement to hold a license before practicing, and the penalty for practicing without one, do not begin until mid-2028.

This is a deliberate two-stage rollout, not a drafting gap. The four delayed sections are precisely the ones that would otherwise make unlicensed practice illegal starting immediately; by delaying them specifically, the legislature gave the new Board roughly two years to adopt rules, build an application process, and begin issuing licenses before anyone is legally required to hold one. Everything that makes the license meaningful in the interim, who sits on the Board, what the Board may regulate, how an applicant qualifies, and what counts as a disciplinary violation, is already law. What is missing until 2028 is the mandate itself.

A separate provision in the same act, unrelated to the license timeline, reclassified center-based ABA clinics serving three or more children for four or more hours a day as day treatment facilities under Colorado's child welfare licensing statute, with its own August 1, 2026 application deadline. That facility-licensing story is tracked separately on this site's other wire item on the same act; this item covers the practice-license and Board-creation side of House Bill 26-1425 only.

Every behavior analyst and assistant behavior analyst practicing in Colorado is affected eventually, since the license requirement reaches anyone providing applied behavior analysis services in the state once it takes effect. For now, the practical effect is limited: no one needs a Colorado license to practice today, and the operative gates remain BACB certification and payor credentialing, exactly as before the act. A practice hiring or supervising in Colorado should watch the Board's rulemaking closely over the next two years, since licensure by endorsement, supervision-of-assistant-behavior-analysts rules, and the application process are all already authorized and can be adopted well before the 2028 mandate takes effect. Behavior technicians providing services under a licensed analyst's supervision are also named in the act, which requires them to use a title indicating their nonprofessional status, such as ABA technician or behavior technician, unless using a current credential such as Registered Behavior Technician.

This is practical guidance, not legal advice. Continue to maintain BACB certification and payor credentialing exactly as before; nothing about those requirements changes because of this act, and the new license is built on top of current certification rather than replacing it. Watch the Colorado Behavior Analyst Licensing Board's own rulemaking and application-process announcements over the next two years rather than waiting until the 2028 deadline approaches, since the Board has full authority to act now and the application and endorsement process may be operating well before the mandate takes effect. Do not assume the Board's existence means a license is currently required; it is not, and will not be until July 1, 2028. Confirm current scope-of-practice and title-use rules directly with the Board, since those provisions took effect immediately and already govern. For the fuller Colorado licensing picture, including how this fits with the state's pre-existing BACB-certification-based practice and the facility-licensing side of the same act, see the Colorado licensing guide, the Colorado entity decision page, and the Colorado PLLC and professional-entity page.

Related: the same act's day-treatment facility reclassification, with its own August 1, 2026 application deadline, is tracked on this site's companion wire item.

Last updated October 2026.