NECC Brings Northeastern Back to Train Its Staff, With an Onsite ABA Master’s

SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – The New England Center for Children plans to launch an on-site master’s program in applied behavior analysis with Northeastern University, letting employees earn the degree while they keep working full time. The first cohort is expected in Fall 2027.

The deal follows an older one. NECC’s on-site ABA graduate programs with Western New England University date to 2008, according to NECC’s own history, and the university said in 2025 that “NECC provides full funding for WNE’s MS in Applied Behavior Analysis program.” Western New England has stopped taking applications to its ABA master’s for terms after fall 2026 and to its doctorate starting fall 2026. Enrolled students keep access to the courses they need to finish, the university says. None of the notices say why, and NECC’s October 6 announcement does not mention Western New England.

Faculty from Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences will teach on NECC’s Southborough campus. The program runs two years, is open only to full-time NECC staff, and covers the coursework the Behavior Analyst Certification Board requires, according to NECC. Graduates still need supervised fieldwork and a passing exam score to become BCBAs.

NECC has not said publicly what employees will pay. It promises “significant tuition reimbursement, substantially reducing the cost of earning an advanced degree,” and its website advertises the degree as free for graduate assistants, without saying who qualifies. Neither the announcement nor the program page gives a dollar figure. For scale, Northeastern lists estimated tuition of $44,250, before fees and other expenses, for its 20-month online ABA master’s in the 2026–27 academic year. It has not published a price for the on-site version.

The partnership is a return. NECC traces its staff’s ties to Northeastern to the late 1970s, and the two formalized an ABA master’s partnership in 1992 that lasted more than 15 years. NECC’s fiscal 2024 annual report counted 1,816 master’s degrees earned through its on-site graduate programs since they began, and the school still runs an education master’s program with Simmons University.

President and CEO Jessica Sassi, who succeeded founder L. Vincent Strully Jr. in 2023, cast the program as a talent pipeline. “Many of NECC’s most accomplished clinicians, researchers, educators, and leaders began their careers working directly with our students while pursuing graduate degrees,” she said in the announcement. NECC is also pitching the program to graduates, who can take a salaried job with benefits and pursue the degree with financial support from the school.

NECC says applications open in January 2027. Its October 6 announcement promised financial details in the coming months.

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