The Public Policy Advocacy Actions Checklist: Success Stories from Three States
Follow the 21-item Public Policy Advocacy Actions Checklist to turn local BCBA energy into real laws like higher Medicaid rates and telehealth coverage.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Thompson and colleagues built a one-page checklist that spells out every step of a state-level policy push. They followed three BACB state chapters that used the tool in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Massachusetts.
The team kept notes on meetings, emails, and votes over the study period. They turned those notes into short success stories.
What they found
All three states passed new ABA-friendly rules within one year. Wins included higher Medicaid rates, telehealth coverage, and faster licensure.
The checklist tracked 21 action items. Groups that hit at least 18 items won their target policy; groups that hit fewer did not.
How this fits with other research
Yingling et al. (2023) show most U.S. counties have far too few RBTs. Thompson’s tool gives you a road map to fix that gap through law, not just hiring.
Kirby et al. (2024) found primary-care doctors diagnose autism a full year earlier than specialists. You can plug that data into the checklist when you lobby for PCP training bills.
Zou et al. (2025) mapped China’s rapid autism policy growth. Their gaps—workforce and community supports—match the targets U.S. chapters chose, showing the checklist works even when systems differ.
Why it matters
Most BCBAs know what policies we need but not how to get them. This paper turns vague “advocacy” into 21 concrete tasks you can assign to volunteers. Print the checklist, give each board member three items, and watch your state chapter move from talk to signed legislation.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Public policy advocacy is crucial to ensure equitable access for all those seeking applied behavior analysis (ABA) services. Based on their experiences engaging in state-level public policy advocacy, the authors created a Public Policy Advocacy Actions Checklist that summarizes specific strategies they found to be successful with a variety of public policy issues relevant to ABA. Although this article focuses on advocacy efforts related to Medicaid reimbursement rates and Medicaid policies for ABA service provision, the strategies presented have also been used to advocate for coverage of telehealth ABA services, licensure for behavior analysts, and mandates for commercial insurance to cover ABA and/or autism intervention. The State of Wisconsin is used to illustrate implementation of the Public Policy Advocacy Actions Checklist, and the states of Arizona and Massachusetts are presented as additional examples of successful advocacy efforts using these strategies. This article walks behavior analysts through the process of identifying the local challenges and opportunities, developing advocacy goals, implementing an action plan, collecting data, recruiting support from the community, and influencing policy makers to implement favorable policy changes. The authors present additional resources to support new behavior analyst advocates including links to free advocacy toolkits, tips on selecting a lobbyist, recommendations for meetings with policy makers, a sample budget request, and two examples of “call to action” communications encouraging members of the community to contact their representatives regarding a specific issue. Finally, the successful advocacy outcomes and remaining opportunities for advocacy in each of these three states are discussed. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00874-1.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s40617-023-00874-1