Alabama Mental Health Department Lists Dec. 15 Renewal Deadline for Behavior Analysts

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA – Alabama’s Department of Mental Health lists Dec. 15 as the renewal deadline for behavior analyst licenses expiring this year. This is its first fall renewal season since a Feb. 26 law transferred licensing, rulemaking, and disciplinary powers from the Alabama Behavior Analyst Licensing Board to the department and made the board an advisory council.

The department’s public roster listed 762 distinct license numbers as of Sept. 30, including 340 with Dec. 31, 2026, expiration dates, according to a BreakingNewsABA count that excluded three duplicate entries.

The change came in Senate Bill 113, sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine. Parents and practitioners argued that licensing should stay in the hands of licensed professionals; lawmakers backing the bill pointed to years of administrative problems flagged in state audits. Since the law took effect, the council has begun studying what it would take to become an independent board.

What the Law Changed

The board operated within the Department of Mental Health, but its members, appointed by the governor, held licensing authority. Act 2026-144 transferred that authority, along with the board’s records and property, to the department. The mental health commissioner now appoints the council’s seven members, and the department sets renewal fees. The Legislature’s fiscal note says license fees will offset the department’s added costs.

The law requires a council recommendation before the commissioner denies, suspends, or revokes a license, or otherwise disciplines a licensee. It also gives the commissioner emergency power to suspend a licensee who “poses an imminent danger to the public,” with a hearing within 10 days. Complaints are filed with the commissioner and investigated by the department, which says the council reviews them at its next scheduled meeting.

“They are the subject matter experts, and we certainly recognize that.” – Kimberly Boswell, Alabama mental health commissioner, to Alabama Daily News, February 2026

Seats on the council largely mirror the board’s: four licensed behavior analysts; a psychologist; a parent or guardian of someone treated for a behavior disorder, or someone who has received ABA services; and a public member. The licensing requirements are essentially unchanged. The law also ends sunset review, the process that required lawmakers to renew the board periodically.

How the Bill Passed

Elliott filed the bill in January as a one-year extension of the board, which faced an Oct. 1, 2026, sunset deadline. On Feb. 5, the Senate adopted his rewrite and passed it 34-0. “This board has had problems since its inception,” Elliott told Alabama Daily News.

Backers cited a September 2025 Sunset Report by the state’s Examiners of Public Accounts. It said the board “does not have an adequate system of record keeping and communication in place.” Two of seven seats were vacant, it had no administrator, and earlier findings remained unresolved, including Open Meetings Act concerns. Complaint data supplied by the board chair listed an average resolution time of 176 business days. In its written response, the board disputed several findings and said difficulty finding qualified candidates had delayed hiring.

The same report noted that a 2024 law required the department to give the board an administrative assistant and other support starting June 1, 2024, and that the department did not hire the assistant until March 17, 2025. One board member wrote in the report’s questionnaire: “The board needs a full-time paid director and administrative assistant to function correctly. It is impossible to keep up with licensee inquiries and ethics allegations on a volunteer basis.”

Alabama Daily News reported that the Sunset Committee gave the board until the end of November 2025 to address administrative problems with the department’s help. Boswell told the outlet the work was not finished in time and that the board disagreed with department-drafted policies the examiners considered necessary. Erich Grommet, a psychologist and behavior analyst on the board, told the outlet that members believed those policies improperly shifted authority to the department.

In February, Grommet told WTVY the bill would make the department, which he described as a mental health provider and payer, “responsible for watching themselves,” and called it “a terrible conflict of interest.” Mental Health Commissioner Kimberly Boswell told Alabama Daily News she would still rely on the council to have the final say on issues involving the practice of behavior analysis; under the law, the council recommends, and the commissioner decides.

The House passed the bill Feb. 19 after adopting an amendment from Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, that made several changes, including defining autism as a neurological and developmental disorder and requiring the council to meet at least quarterly. The Senate accepted the changes that day. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill Feb. 26, and it took effect then.

The Council So Far

At its April 10 meeting at the department’s central office in Montgomery, the council adopted open-meetings and public-records policies described in the minutes as corrective actions responding to the examiners’ report. Boswell attended, and chair Holly Johnson introduced Sue Berry as the new executive director.

Posted minutes document monthly meetings from June through September. In June, the department’s chief of staff said it would provide an administrator; Senia Powell began full-time work Aug. 3. In August, members authorized staff to approve qualified applicants between meetings, leaving questions about qualifications to the council. By July 16, staff reported 130 applications for 2026, compared with 154 in all of 2025.

Membership has also changed. Johnson announced in July that she was moving out of state, and another behavior analyst member left. Hulsey, appointed to the parent seat in April, became interim chair in July and chaired the August and September meetings. Grommet attended Sept. 17. Minutes from that meeting, the latest posted as of Oct. 28, show one behavior analyst seat and the public seat vacant, with a candidate recommended for the public seat.

In June, Hulsey said she wanted the council to keep studying the finances it would need as it reviews “what is needed to become an independent board,” the minutes show, and in August members discussed a financial plan toward that goal. Rep. Margie Wilcox, R-Mobile, a Sunset Committee co-chair, left that door open in February. “At any time that they are able to resurrect themselves and come back to be a full board, we’ll be glad to do that,” she told Alabama Daily News.

What Licensees Face This Fall

The department’s licensing page lists Dec. 15 for renewals, with a $50 late fee afterward. The published renewal rule still requires applications to be received by Nov. 30, so licensees should confirm the applicable deadline with the department.

The published fee schedule sets renewal fees at $150 for a behavior analyst and $100 for an assistant behavior analyst, plus a $25 application review fee required by the renewal rule. Registered behavior technicians working under a licensed analyst do not need a state license.

The department says initial licenses last up to two years, expiring Dec. 31 of the year after issuance. The public roster lists 340 distinct license numbers expiring Dec. 31, 2026, and 422 expiring Dec. 31, 2027. It is not a statewide census: licensees may opt out of the directory, and licenses issued after the roster was compiled may be missing.

AT A GLANCE

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