Psychologist Licensure in Arkansas: Degree, Supervised Hours and the EPPP

Arkansas protects the work and the holding-out as much as the title: practising, or holding yourself out as practising, psychology without a licence as psychological examiner or psychologist is a violation carrying a $500–$1,000 fine.

The doctoral licence is Psychologist; the master's tier is Licensed Psychological Examiner, whose independent status (LPE-I) is statute-limited and closing to new licensees; the senior psychologist licence offers a 20-year route; and Provisionally Licensed Psychologist is the supervised stage where the postdoctoral hours accrue.

Neuropsychological Technicians are a separate board registration under § 17-97-401 — registered to administer and score tests, not licensed to practise.

The psychologist statute asks for a doctoral degree in psychology from an accredited institution the board recognizes as maintaining satisfactory standards — or, in lieu of it, a doctorate in a closely allied field the board finds substantially similar.

The rules add regional accreditation and name APA- or CPA-accredited programs, or programs meeting the board's own criteria, as the routes, with coursework checked directly: a minimum of 80 graduate semester hours at a grade of B or above for non-accredited degrees.

The examiner statute parallels this at the master's level — a master's degree in psychology or a closely related field, with a curriculum of at least two academic years of full-time graduate study.

The board does not pre-approve educational programs; each application is judged on its own merits.

Rule 5.4.F pairs the two halves plainly: a 2000-hour pre-doctoral internship and 2000 hours of post-doctoral supervision.

The statute states the experience requirement as at least two years, with at least one postdoctoral.

The postdoctoral 2,000 hours must be full-time — 40 hours a week for at least one calendar year, 50 weeks — unless the board pre-approves part-time, they may not stretch past three years, and at least 25 percent (a minimum of 500 hours) must be direct client services.

The hours only accrue once the board grants Provisional Licensure status, which runs up to 18 months and can be extended to 3 years.

Nothing in the sources read lets graduates of accredited programs count internship or practicum hours toward the postdoctoral half, so plan the year after the doctorate around them.

The statute requires competence shown by passing examinations, written or oral, or both, as the board deems necessary, and the rules name the nationally recognized standardized professional practice examinations developed by ASPPB.

The board's applicants page is the concrete layer for the EPPP: a minimum passing score of 500, a 60-day wait between attempts, and at most 4 attempts in one year.

No requirement for EPPP Part 2 was found in the rules read, and the rule's plural 'examinations' does not settle the question either way.

The question is time-limited regardless: ASPPB's integrated EPPP replaces the two-part exam for first-time takers from fall 2027 and is the only version from April 1, 2028.

A Provisionally Licensed Psychologist needs at least 1 hour of face-to-face supervision a week — a variance down to 4 hours a month exists for hardship — and the supervising Psychologist countersigns their written work, with the mandatory quarterly supervision reports a joint responsibility of supervisor and supervisee.

Rule 6.2.G qualifies the supervisors: licensed or certified for the practice of psychology, with training and/or coursework in supervision and three current recommendations, and the postdoctoral supervisor's own Statement of Intent must be consistent with the areas supervised (Rule 5.4.H.(1)(d)).

Licensed Psychological Examiners file an annual supervision report due by June 30, with the content of supervision individually tailored between examiner and supervisor.

Picking a supervisor is therefore a paperwork decision as much as a clinical one — the wrong placement can generate hours the board's forms never capture.

A Licensed Psychological Examiner can practise psychoeducational evaluation and diagnosis without supervision, but the statute still requires supervision for overall personality appraisal or classification, personality counseling, psychotherapy, or personality adjustment techniques.

Independent practice privileges cover everything except neuropsychological assessment, forensic psychological assessment, and projective personality assessment — and the routes differ by vintage: an examiner licensed before December 31, 1997 qualifies on a letter and revised statement of intent with no additional hours, while one licensed after that date needs a completed master's program in psychology (narrower than the licence's 'psychology or a closely related field'), 3,000 hours of supervised clinical training whose plan the board approves before accrual, and a revised statement of intent with documented training in the areas requested.

That door is now closing: an examiner licensed after December 31, 2024 cannot be granted independent practice status.

No Arkansas psychology tier prescribes.

Arkansas joined PSYPACT through HB 1760, and the PSYPACT Commission map, as read in September 2026, lists the state as a member in effect: enacted April 25, 2021, effective November 18, 2021.

The board's rules note the compact sits in the Arkansas Code at § 17-97-501 et seq.

PSYPACT is doctoral-only, so the master's-tier examiner cannot use it — the compact moves psychologists, not LPEs.

A licensed Arkansas psychologist uses it to practise telepsychology or work temporarily in person in another participating state.

A psychologist licensed in another jurisdiction can obtain the Arkansas licence without the written examination if the other jurisdiction's requirements were equal to or exceeded Arkansas's.

Two credentials shortcut further: an ASPPB Certificate of Professional Qualification, or National Register certification combined with an active licence elsewhere for at least five years, are deemed to have met the educational and experience requirements.

A psychologist coming for short work should know the narrow consultation exception — with prior board notification, consultation on one case a year, up to 30 days per calendar year.

Examiners are not shut out either: at the board's discretion, § 17-97-306 allows a certificate without the assembled examination to any person licensed by a similar board of another state whose standards, in the board's opinion, are not lower than this chapter's.

Rule 10.3.B adds automatic licensure — bypassing the Title 17 requirements — for uniformed-service members, veterans and their spouses holding a similar-scope licence in good standing; the CPQ and National Register shortcuts remain psychologist routes.

Licences renew annually and are active July 1 to June 30, on an annual registration fee the statute authorises the board to set.

The CE rule asks each licensee for a minimum of 20 hours per renewal period, 3 of them ethics hours, with CE not earned exclusively by home study or online means.

The statute states the same idea over a longer window: a renewal application will not be considered without 40 hours of continuing education for the previous biennium, 24 months.

Twenty a year and 40 a biennium are one pace; at renewal the licensee attests to the hours and documents them only if the board's random audit selects them.

Act 573 of 2023 repealed the old rule that no new psychological examiner licence would be issued after December 31, 2013, and the board is accepting LPE applications again.

The same act added § 17-97-303(d)(3), leaving the reopened licence with no independent exit for anyone licensed after December 31, 2024, and it inserted forensic psychological assessment — with a new definition in § 17-97-102 — into the LPE-I exclusions, which had covered only neuropsychological and projective personality assessment.

The board has also posted new supervision and postdoctoral forms for 2026 that were not part of the sources read, alongside a 2025 'Statement-of-Intent-AP' form whose AP designation those sources do not identify.

Check the board's forms pages before filing.