Jason Barker, CEO, ABA Centers

May 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Jason Barker, CEO of ABA Centers, discussed the growing demand for autism care, the importance of early intervention, and the need for greater accountability across the applied behavior analysis (ABA) field. “We are making changes that we hope will improve the field of autism care nationwide, not just for our company, but for all providers and all the families that aren’t currently getting help. Those of us who are in this field because we want to provide the best possible outcomes need to lead that charge,” Barker said.

How has demand for autism diagnosis and ABA therapy evolved over the past year, and what is driving that growth?

The demand for autism care continues to outstrip the supply of providers who can actually provide care. As a result, there are many people with autism who are on waiting lists trying to get into therapy. That continues to be the reality.

At least in Broward County and Fort Lauderdale, it is not as bad as it is in many other parts of the country. We have a better supply of ABA therapists in this community, so access is easier here than in some other markets. Even so, it still takes time to get both a diagnosis and access to the therapy that is needed.

For the foreseeable future, it will likely continue to be a supply and demand mismatch between the people who need therapy and the people who can actually provide it.

Why is timely diagnosis and early intervention so critical?

It is very critical that as soon as parents identify that a child is not developing in the way they would expect, they get that child screened and assessed to understand what might be happening. All of the data and research support this: early intervention is the key.

You can reliably diagnose children as early as 18 months, and definitely by age two, where there may be neurodiversity at play. When you think about the ability to have the best possible outcomes for clients, you want to build the skill set and make the behavior changes when the neuroplasticity of the brain is optimal. In the human brain, it is believed that neuroplasticity peaks at three years of age, so the closer to that timeframe you can get a child into therapy, the better the long-term outcomes are.

The goal is to help them have a quality of life that is on par with a neurotypical individual. A lot of the struggle for children with autism centers around their ability to communicate with the world. If they cannot communicate effectively, that is often when you see frustration, aggression, elopement, and other behaviors that are not helpful. That is why identifying challenges early and giving families tools early can make such a difference.

How do you work with pediatricians, schools, and community partners to expand access to care?

Pediatricians are a very important partner for us. We can train pediatricians and their staff on how to recognize neurodivergent tendencies in their patients. There is a particular diagnostic tool called the ADOS-2, and we can teach pediatricians how that tool works so they can heighten their sensitivity and identify concerns earlier. That is important because pediatricians often play a major role in helping children get into early intervention.

Schools are also very important. One of the great things about Florida is that our clinicians are able to accompany clients into the school setting. That helps children continue in therapy while they are also in an educational environment. It helps the child develop, and it also helps the teacher maintain order in the classroom, especially for children who may have aggressive behavior, self-injurious behavior, or are prone to elopement.

Another major issue is workforce-related. One of the reasons there are waiting lists is because there are not enough therapists. We have developed a number of partnerships with universities to fund schooling for people who want to get their master’s degree in applied behavior analysis. We also provide the apprenticeship hours they need so they can become board certified and treat clients.

Our approach has been not to wait for academia to catch up, but to partner with academia and help fund the pipeline. Right now, every year, there are probably between 70 and 80 new Board Certified Behavior Analysts, or BCBAs, who are new to the field purely because we have funded their schooling and helped programs expand their capacity to train them.

How does a clinician-centered culture lead to better outcomes for families?

By being very clinician-centered and clinically focused, and by really focusing on the science of what we do, we are able to do a much better job of assessing clients and developing treatment plans that are very specific.

When you are developing a treatment plan for somebody with autism, it needs to use evidence-based tools. It has to be personalized to that person’s age and general presentation, and it must be data-driven. You use evidence-based tools, observations, and data to develop an individualized treatment plan, and then that plan has to be delivered by very competent and skilled clinicians.

That is why it is incredibly important to position clinicians to be as successful as possible. Do they have all the resources they need? Do they have the knowledge and skills they need? We have developed an ABA Academy of Excellence that helps train our BCBAs and Registered Behavior Technicians, or RBTs, on the appropriate assessment tools and on how to deliver better therapy.

That focus on the clinician is one of the things that differentiates ABA Centers. When clinicians are well trained and well supported, families get better care, and clients get better outcomes.

What are your top priorities over the next three to five years?

For us, the priorities over the next three to five years are to continue to advance the science of ABA therapy and continue to push the field to higher levels of accountability around quality of care and outcomes. That means documenting outcomes and being able to prove to health plans, insurers, and parents that ABA therapy is yielding the outcomes they would expect.

Parents of very vulnerable children entrust us to walk side by side with them on a journey to help their child develop and reach their full potential. It is an honor to do that, and we want to make sure we are always advocating for the safest care, the best quality, and the best possible outcomes.

Because demand continues to be so strong, we will also continue to grow. We will continue to open new clinics and centers across the country. We are mostly an East Coast company, but we continue to move west. We recently opened a clinic in Washington state, so we now stretch from the East Coast to the West Coast.

We are also looking at how technology can help us create efficiencies. ABA therapy will always be a human-to-human interaction, but we are asking how we can use technology and artificial intelligence to make things more efficient for our RBTs, our BCBAs, and for caregivers, who are most often parents. How can we help parents stay on top of what is happening and support them in being successful?

That will be a major part of what we work on going forward. The therapy itself will remain human-to-human, but technology can help make the system better for both parents and patients.

What broader issue in the field do you think deserves more attention right now?

One thing I would expand on is the need for the field to hold itself accountable to higher levels of performance and professionalism. There have been unfortunate situations in this space that have made it even more clear that we need better accountability around quality and outcomes.

That is one reason I am so committed to quality, outcomes, and publicly reporting on quality and outcomes. We are making changes that we hope will improve the field of autism care nationwide, not just for our company, but for all providers and all the families that aren’t currently getting help. Those of us who are in this field because we want to provide the best possible outcomes need to lead that charge.