Legislative Updates on ILABA’s Senate Bill 0712 as of May 22, 2026.
- 4/15/2026 SB 712 passed the Senate License committee and full Senate unanimously
- 5/06/2026 SB 712 passed the House License committee unanimously
- 5/21/2026 SB 712 passed the full House 107-2-2
- The Senate has 30 days to transmit SB 712 to the Governor’s office to be signed.
What is the intent of ILABA’s Senate Bill 712?
This bill provides technical clarifications and cleans up language in the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act to match the original intent of the 2022 Act. Specifically the bill:
- Increases access to ABA services by explicitly stating that schools and non-for-profit organizations are exempted from the business structure requirement (these structure only applies to privately-owned entities);
- Protects multidisciplinary practices by explicitly including behavior analysis as a related profession with Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech Therapy, etc.;
- Strengthens consumer protection by explicitly stating that only licensed clinicians can make decisions regarding clinical care.
The bill also expands service provider types and the following:
- Carves out non-profits and non-public schools, which was the original intent.
- Adds Occupational therapists who were inadvertently left out of the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act.
- Adds language that includes behavior analysts in Professional Service Corporation (PSC) and Professional Limited Liability Company Acts’ listing of related service professionals. This will also preserve the multi-specialty clinics providing services today.
What could happen if ILABA’s bill doesn’t pass?
- Licensed SLP, OT, PT, etc, could not own & operate ABA companies as behavior analysts aren’t currently included in the list of related professionals in the PSC and PLLC Acts.
- Non-profits & schools are at risk as they are not able to be in compliance with section 150 because of their structures (note: the intention was always that schools and non-profits would be exempt, but this bill codifies that).
Is there opposition to SB 712?
Yes. Opponents to SB 712 do not dispute the original intent of the bill, but there have been legislative efforts to repeal Section 150 of the 2022 Act. Opposition to SB 712 is intended to leverage the language that needs to be cleaned up in the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act to repeal language in Section 150, specifically around who can own the direct ABA service delivery company (Section 150 known as Corporate Practice of Medicine or CPOM).
Myths about SB 712:
- Myth: SB 712 puts service recipients at risk by creating barriers to access to ABA services.
SB 712’s amendment language simply cleans up language in the original LBA Act to preserve currently available services being delivered through multi-disciplinary services, non-profits and schools.
- Myth: Keeping Section 150 within SB 712 does not protect patients from poor clinical care.
Within the LBA Act, Section 150’s CPOM spirit is to protect patients and the practitioner from unlicensed owners influencing treatment or care. SB 712 adds strengthening language in the unlicensed delivery of services section of the LBA Act that unlicensed people cannot influence treatment or care.
- Myth: SB 712 is not repealing Section 150 in the LBA Act and putting thousands of service recipients at risk for losing services.
Since 1938, all physical and behavioral healthcare providers, including speech and occupational therapies, have been required to be in ownership and business structure compliance with CPOM and PSC Act. For ABA companies with unlicensed owners, the state does allow a legal way towards Section 150 compliance by developing a separate management service organization (MSO). The MSO can be owned by the non-licensed owners that left the ABA direct service company, and can contract for administrative services provided to the LBA/RSP owned direct service PLLC/PC company.
- Myth: Providers have not had sufficient time to get into compliance with Section 150 with a deadline of January 15, 2027.
Once the LBA Act passed in 2022, providers became aware of compliance with CPOM and PSC Act. Then in 2024, HB5344 passed and delayed the start of compliance until 24 months after the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation had commenced issuance of licenses. Licensure applications commenced in January 2025. By the time the compliance deadline of January 2027 comes, almost five years will have passed since behavior analyst became licensed and we learned about CPOM and PSC Act compliance.
Acronyms:
CPOM – corporate practice of medicine doctrine
PSC Act – Professional Service Act
RSP – related service professionals (e.g., LBA, SP, OT, PT)
SB 712 – ILABAs Senate Bill 712 amendment.
LBA Act – Behavior analyst licensing act
Section 150 – A section in the LBA Act