The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC  Grievance Procedure

The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC (ABAC) is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, The National Board of Certified Counselors, The American Psychological Association, and The Association of Social Work Boards. The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC. will comply with all legal and ethical responsibilities to be non-discriminatory in promotional activities, program content and in the treatment of program participants. The monitoring and assessment of compliance with these standards will be the responsibility of the owner in consultation with our continuing education program coordinator and members of our continuing education committee.

While The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues which come to the attention of the webinar workshop moderators which require intervention and/or action on the part of the webinar workshop moderator or the managing director of ABAC. This procedural description serves as a guideline for handling such grievances.

When a participant, either orally or in written format, files a grievance and expects action on the complaint, the following actions will be taken.

• If the grievance concerns a speaker, the content presented by the speaker, or the style of presentation, the individual filing the grievance will be asked to put his/her comments in written format, and ABAC will then pass on the comments to the speaker, assuring the confidentiality of the grieved individual.
• If the grievance concerns a workshop offering, its content, level of presentation, or the facilities in which the workshop was offered, the owner will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, the owner may:
  • attempt to move the participant to another workshop, or
  • provide a credit for a subsequent year’s workshop, or
  • provide a partial or full refund of the workshop fee.

Actions 2b and 2c will require a written note, documenting the grievance, for record keeping purposes. The note need not be signed by the grieved individual.

• If the grievance concerns The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC continuing education program in a specific regard, the Director of Continuing Education and members of the ABAC Internal Continuing Education Committee (e.g. Social Work Consultant if the grievance is submitted by a social worker) will confer and attempt to arbitrate.

Please contact Adrienne Fitzer, MA, BCBA, CEO of The Applied Behavior Analysis Center, LLC, 109 Miln Street, First Floor Cranford, NJ 07016, adrienne@abacnj.com, 908-276-6500 to submit a complaint, or if you have additional questions.

National or Global Emergencies

While it is our hope that a national and global emergency similar to the Covid-19 global shut down never happens again, the contingency we will implement will be similar to what we did at that time. We will postpone all Live Events indefinitely until it is determined that it is safe and/or feasible for all Presenters and Learners to resume attending online learning events. For example, events scheduled March and April of 2020 were postponed indefinitely until the transition to shelter-in-place for Presenters and Learners was complete. By mid-April all events had been rescheduled. Communication with Learners will be identical to the processes described above unless the internet is unavailable due to the national or global emergency. In that instance, communication will resume as soon as possible.

Weather and/or Technology Related Interruptions

In various parts of the United States, summer and early autumn weather conditions (wildfires, hurricanes, etc.) may impact the ability for ABAC or a Presenter to run a Live Event or such events may interfere with the delivery of a Live Event already in progress. In addition, internet or data related interruptions due to construction or work being done in the area may also prevent ABAC or a Presenter from delivering a Live Event. We have experienced both at ABAC, more than once, and the following contingencies are in place to communicate with Learners in the event conditions interrupt the delivery of a Live Event.

When conditions are likely to impact the delivery of an event the Director of Continuing Education will:

Postpone the Live Event if deemed necessary or; run the Live Event but announce to Learners what will happen if power is lost on the Presenter’s side or ABAC’s side. 

If power is lost on the ABAC side, the Presenter will continue to present and deliver attendance Codes. The Director will communicate with the Presenter via text if necessary. 

If power or internet is lost on the Presenter side, the Moderator will turn on their camera, let the Learners know that the Presenter is no longer in the live webinar space, and inform the Learners that they are going to contact the Presenter via phone and text. Once the Moderator is aware of what is going on, they will report back to the Learners that a) the Presenter will return momentarily or b) the rest of the Live Event will need to be reschedule and the Learners will receive an email as soon as a date has been set to deliver the rest of the Live Event.

In the unlikely situation that conditions prevent ABAC from reaching out to Learners using a secure internet connection, the Director of Continuing Education will use a personal hotspot and VPN to attempt to login to the site to retrieve Learner information and send an email alerting them to the issue. If local conditions do not allow for the Director of Continuing Education to safely travel or if no data or internet connection is available, they will connect with the Learners as soon as it is safe to do so. 

Email Response Delays

On September 1, 2021, the ABAC office was lost to flooding during Hurricane Ida. Due to the clean up, search for a new office, and general disruption in the work and personal lives of the ABACTeam, Dr. Adrienne Fitzer, Chief Executive Officer, used the vacation/out of offices email response settings provided by the email provider to inform those who were attempting to contact her during that time that responses would be delayed. The text was updated every few days until it was no longer necessary. This procedure is similar to that used for other emergencies or situations that may impact email response time. 

Out-of-office email auto-responses also include secondary contacts for presenters, customers, and learners to use to receive assistance.