IBBFA Policies

4.1About this Code

Purpose

The purpose of this Code is to promote good professional practice. It supports IBBFA credential holders in their commitment to excellent client care and to fulfilling their professional roles, provides a framework to guide professional judgment and behavior, and sets out standards that represent best practice for barre fitness instruction worldwide.

Scope

This Code applies to all IBBFA credential holders — Certified Barre Instructors (CBI), Specialty-certified instructors, Principal Instructors, Master Instructors, and Fellows — for the duration of their credential. It applies whether the credential holder is teaching in a studio, gym, online, in a private setting, or in a voluntary capacity.

Compliance with the Law

This Code is not a substitute for the provisions of legislation and case law. IBBFA credential holders must comply with all laws that apply to them, inform themselves of relevant legal requirements, and stay up to date with these requirements. Areas of legal compliance include, but are not limited to:

• Anti-discrimination law
• Child safety and protection law (and mandatory reporting obligations in your jurisdiction)
• Consumer law
• Criminal law
• Intellectual property law
• Privacy law (including the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) where applicable)
• Workplace health and safety law (including jurisdictional WHS / OH&S legislation)
• Civil liability law
• Local government policy for the use of public space, where you teach in public settings

Administration

The IBBFA Board oversees and administers this Code and considers any complaint that an IBBFA credential holder has failed to comply with the Code or has otherwise: (a) engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct; (b) engaged in professional misconduct; (c) shown that they are not a suitable person to hold an IBBFA credential; or (d) brought IBBFA into disrepute. The Board may delegate this authority to a committee with power to investigate complaints and apply sanctions, up to and including credential revocation.

4.2Good Professional Practice

Good professional practice means providing high-quality, safe services for clients. IBBFA credential holders are required to:

• Understand and work within the limits of their competence, the IBBFA Barre Instructor Scope of Practice, and any additional scope-of-practice requirements that apply in their jurisdiction (for example, the AUSactive Scope of Practice for Registered Exercise Professionals where teaching in Australia).
• Maintain and extend the knowledge and skills required to provide safe services through ongoing continuing education consistent with current evidence and any continuing-education-credit (CEC) obligations that apply in their jurisdiction. Instructors choosing to maintain IBBFA Active status must also complete the annual maintenance requirements in Section 2 after their included Active period.
• Assess each client's needs and undertake appropriate pre-exercise screening before the client begins a class or program. Where a credential holder operates in Australia, this includes use of the Adult Pre-Exercise Screening System (APSS) or the Pre-Exercise Screening System for Young People, or another screening system recognized by AUSactive or another peak body.
• Carefully evaluate and consider the results of a client's pre-exercise screening and the client's stated objectives when developing, delivering, or recommending a barre class, program, or service.
• Refer a client to another qualified professional — such as a medical practitioner, allied health professional, or accredited exercise physiologist — when the client requests, or needs, services that are outside the IBBFA scope of practice or outside the credential holder's current competence.
• Maintain complete records of services provided to clients, including pre-exercise screening, modifications applied, client progress, and referrals. Records must be stored securely and retained for the period required by the credential holder's jurisdictional law and insurer.
• Hold appropriate professional indemnity and public liability insurance that covers the full scope of all activities undertaken, whether in a professional or voluntary capacity. Insurance must be maintained continuously while teaching is being delivered.

4.3Working with Clients

Relationships between IBBFA credential holders and clients are collaborative and based on respect, openness, trust, and good communication. IBBFA credential holders are required to:

• Be courteous, respectful, compassionate, and honest with clients.
• Respect each client's privacy and right to confidentiality.
• Obtain client consent before releasing or exchanging health information with third parties (such as a treating doctor, allied health professional, or studio management) where this is necessary to plan or deliver safe instruction.
• Use client information carefully and only for the purposes for which it was collected when developing exercise programs.
• Conduct themselves within appropriate professional boundaries — including, but not limited to, avoiding sexual, romantic, or financial relationships with current clients, and maintaining clear boundaries between instruction and personal friendship.
• Prioritize each client's health, well-being, and safety, taking into account their individual circumstances, presenting conditions, and exercise objectives.
• Maintain a safe, inclusive, and respectful class environment free from harassment, intimidation, or discriminatory behavior by the instructor, by participants, or by facility staff.
• Apply contraindication recognition and modification protocols as trained, and stop or modify any movement that places a client at unreasonable risk.
• Report safety concerns — including facility hazards, equipment failures, or client incidents — to the responsible facility management or supervisor.

4.4Working with Children and Young People

Providing services for children and young people brings additional responsibilities. IBBFA credential holders teaching minors are required to:

• Comply with child protection (or equivalent) legislation and mandatory reporting obligations in their jurisdiction. In Australia this includes the relevant state or territory child safety scheme and any Working with Children Check requirement.
• Hold any background check, working-with-children clearance, or vulnerable-person check required to teach minors in their jurisdiction, and renew it before it lapses.
• Consider a young person's capacity for decision-making and consent, and obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian where appropriate.
• Use a pre-exercise screening process appropriate to young people (in Australia, the Pre-Exercise Screening System for Young People), and adapt programs for age-appropriate development and physical-activity needs.
• When communicating with a child or young person: encourage questions and answer them to the best of their ability, provide information in a way that the young person can understand, recognize the role of parents and guardians, and never communicate with a minor in a way that excludes a parent or guardian from oversight.
• Apply appropriate physical-contact and supervision practices, including avoiding being alone with a single minor where this can be reasonably prevented.

4.5Culturally Safe and Inclusive Practice

Professional practice in the health and fitness industry involves acknowledgment of the cultural diversity of clients. IBBFA credential holders are required to:

• Have respect for, and show sensitivity towards, the cultural needs of the community in which they teach. In Australia this specifically includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds; in other jurisdictions, the equivalent recognition of Indigenous and minority cultural needs applies.
• Acknowledge the social, economic, cultural, and behavioral factors that influence health behavior and health outcomes, both at individual and community levels.
• Adapt language, music, dress code, and class environment where reasonable to make instruction accessible to participants of differing cultural, religious, or linguistic backgrounds.
• Maintain referral systems with culturally appropriate health professionals to improve client engagement and outcomes.
• Refrain from any conduct that constitutes harassment, vilification, or discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic.

4.6Publication and Public Statements

An IBBFA credential holder making any public statement should be aware that the statement may reflect upon IBBFA and the wider barre fitness profession. For the purposes of this Code, a public statement means a statement reported in the media (including social media, podcasts, livestream, and online video). IBBFA credential holders must:

• Avoid making public comments or statements that bring, or are likely to bring, IBBFA, AUSactive, or the barre fitness industry into disrepute.
• Only make public comments or statements within their scope of practice and where they have adequate knowledge, and provide information supported by current evidence-based research.
• Not present opinion as established science, and not make health, medical, or therapeutic claims about barre instruction that are not supported by evidence.
• Obtain prior written authority from IBBFA before stating or implying that a personal statement is made on behalf of IBBFA, the IBBFA Board, or any IBBFA officer or employee.
• Represent their credential honestly online by naming the credential level and specialty designations actually earned and accurately disclosing current standing: Active or Inactive (which may appear as Lapsed), or the applicable disciplinary status. Do not imply credentials, accreditations, affiliations or current Active standing that are not held.

4.7Mentoring, Supervising and Assessing

Mentoring and supervising current and emerging instructors is important to ensure the highest standards of professional practice are achieved. IBBFA credential holders who mentor, supervise, or assess others are required to:

• Treat any professional, candidate, or student they are mentoring or supervising with respect and patience.
• Offer honest, objective, and constructive feedback on the performance of colleagues, mentees, or candidates.
• Obtain client consent for student or candidate participation in a class or session, and respect a client's right to choose not to consent.
• Clearly explain to the student and the client the scope of the student's participation.
• Draw on appropriate evidence from research and current good practice to inform their decisions, advice, and assessment.
• Conduct examinations, board reviews, and proctored assessments with integrity — declining to assess a candidate where there is a personal or financial conflict of interest, and applying the published assessment standards consistently.

4.8Professional Integrity and the IBBFA Credential

• To maintain Active status after the included period, complete the $99 annual maintenance payment and either the Recertification Quiz or two qualifying IBBFA live webinars during each renewal year. Choosing not to renew results in Inactive standing; nonrenewal alone is not an ethics violation and does not erase the earned credential.
• Represent credentials honestly. An instructor whose standing is Inactive may state the credential earned and its award date, while clearly disclosing that Active status is not current. Do not claim current Active standing or display an Active-status badge after that standing expires. Use credential marks only as permitted by the applicable IBBFA usage terms.
• Suspension and revocation are disciplinary actions separate from ordinary nonrenewal. While Suspended or Revoked, do not present yourself as currently IBBFA-certified, IBBFA-recognized or IBBFA-accredited, or use IBBFA credential marks. Follow the applicable decision, review and appeal procedures.
• Do not share, distribute, or sell IBBFA curriculum or examination materials, and do not assist any other person to misrepresent IBBFA credentials.
• Respect the intellectual property rights of IBBFA, AUSactive, other peak bodies, and other instructors and choreographers.
• Operate within the scope of practice defined by IBBFA training — fitness instruction, not healthcare. IBBFA certification does not constitute a license to diagnose, treat, prescribe for, or rehabilitate any medical condition.
• Refer clients to qualified healthcare professionals when situations exceed the scope of barre fitness instruction.

4.9Complaints and Investigations

IBBFA credential holders have responsibilities and rights relating to any legitimate investigation of their practice or the practice of a colleague. In meeting these responsibilities, IBBFA credential holders are advised to seek legal advice and advice from their professional indemnity insurer. IBBFA credential holders are required to:

• Cooperate with any legitimate inquiry into the professional services provided for a client or clients — whether the inquiry is conducted by IBBFA, AUSactive, another peak body, an employer, or a regulator.
• Disclose information relevant to an investigation into their own or a colleague's conduct, performance, or health to any regulator or delegate entitled to the information.
• Assist a coroner where an inquest or inquiry is held into a client's death, in accordance with applicable legal obligations.
• Refrain from retaliating against a client, colleague, or staff member who has made a complaint in good faith.

4.10Reporting Obligations

IBBFA credential holders must:

• Report to IBBFA any criminal conviction associated with young or vulnerable persons, or any criminal conviction in connection with their health and fitness services.
• Report to IBBFA if they are the subject of any criminal, summary, or civil complaint in connection with their professional services. To maintain the integrity and standing of its profession, IBBFA may suspend a credential holder's status while they are being investigated for professional misconduct or criminal activity.
• Notify IBBFA if their professional indemnity or public liability insurance is cancelled, lapsed, or not renewed for any reason — and refrain from teaching paid classes until insurance is reinstated.
• Notify IBBFA of any sanction, suspension, or termination by another credentialing body, peak body (including AUSactive), employer, or studio in relation to their professional conduct.
• Notify IBBFA of any change of legal name within 30 days, so that the public registry remains accurate.

4.11Sanctions and Credential Revocation

Where a complaint is substantiated, IBBFA may apply one or more of the following sanctions, depending on the seriousness and pattern of the conduct:

• Formal written warning.
• Mandatory remedial education or supervised practice.
• Restriction of credential (for example, removal of a specialty designation).
• Suspension of credential for a defined period, with the public registry status updated to reflect the suspension.
• Revocation of credential, with the public registry status updated to Revoked.

Reports of ethical violations can be submitted to info@ibbfa.org or via the Ethics Complaint Form (see Section 6). IBBFA investigates all credible reports. Investigation outcomes that result in suspension or revocation are reflected in the public verification registry.

Right of Appeal

A credential holder who is the subject of an adverse decision may appeal to the IBBFA Board within 30 calendar days of the written decision. Appeals are heard by a panel that did not participate in the original investigation. The decision of the appeal panel is final.

4.12Definitions

• Client: an individual to whom an IBBFA credential holder provides barre fitness instruction or related services.
• Credential holder: an individual holding an earned IBBFA credential, including Certified Barre Instructor (CBI), Specialty-certified, Principal, Master or Fellow, with Active, Inactive (Lapsed) or Suspended standing. Revocation is governed by the applicable disciplinary decision.
• Active: current maintenance standing during the included Active period or after the applicable annual payment and education requirements have been completed.
• Inactive (Lapsed): the included or renewed Active period has ended and the applicable maintenance requirements are not current. The earned credential remains on record and publicly verifiable. This is different from suspension or revocation.
• Active-through date: the recorded end date of the instructor's current included or renewed Active period, distinct from the original credential award date and course-access dates.
• Pre-exercise screening: a questionnaire or system that identifies clients who may have medical conditions or symptoms associated with elevated risk of an adverse event during physical activity. Recognized systems include the APSS (Adult Pre-Exercise Screening System) and the Pre-Exercise Screening System for Young People.
• Public statement: any statement reported in the media or on social media (including blog posts, podcasts, livestream, and online video).
• Professional misconduct: conduct so seriously below the standard reasonably expected of an IBBFA credential holder of an equivalent level of training or experience that it warrants suspension or revocation.
• Unsatisfactory professional conduct: knowledge, skill, or judgment possessed by the credential holder that is below the standard reasonably expected of an IBBFA credential holder of an equivalent level of training or experience.
• Scope of practice: the IBBFA Barre Instructor Scope of Practice (published at ibbfa.org/standards/barre-instructor-scope-of-practice/), read together with any jurisdictional scope of practice that applies to the credential holder.

4.13Review

This Code of Ethical Conduct is reviewed periodically and not less than every three years, with the next scheduled review by May 2029. Material changes are published at ibbfa.org/policies and notified to credential holders by email.