Adapting the RBT Task List for the School Setting (Without Losing Your Mind)

Let’s be real for a second…

The RBT Task List is great in theory.
It’s thorough. It’s important. It’s full of solid behavior fundamentals.

But when you try to teach it to an RBT who's supporting a student during a loud group lesson in a public school cafeteria… it suddenly feels like trying to read a textbook while someone’s throwing dodgeballs at your head.

Supervising RBTs in schools? It’s a different world.

The Problem: The Task List Isn’t Written for Schools

There, I said it.

A lot of the items on the Task List were built with clinic settings in mind — quiet rooms, structured time, staff trained in ABA lingo.

In schools, RBTs are:

• Running between math and music class

• Getting directions from gen ed teachers

• Taking data with a pencil and the back of a worksheet

• Managing behavior while navigating crowded hallways

We still need to teach the task list — but we need to adapt it to reality. Which is exactly what I did in my new manual.

What Does Adapting the Task List Actually Mean?

It means translating the content from “textbook ABA” to school-based support.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Example: Task List Item – “Provide positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior”

Clinic version: “Deliver a preferred item on an FR1 schedule.”
School version: “Notice when the student participates during morning meeting, and give verbal praise + a point on their class token board.”

• Identify the essential components of a written skill acquisition plan”

Clinic version: “Refer to the detailed SLP in Catalyst.”
School version: “Know what the student is supposed to be working on today, how to prompt it, and how to track progress during centers.”

It also means providing real life school examples to practice the task list and providing meaningful supervision topics and practice.

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to choose between meeting the supervision requirements and being realistic about school life.
You can do both — with structure, tools, and a little creativity.

So let’s keep training our RBTs to be confident, competent, and capable... even during indoor recess and surprise assemblies.