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

California issues one psychology licence, psychologist, and one pre-licensure registration, the registered psychological associate.

The registration lets a person who is not yet licensed perform psychological functions in preparation for licensure; it is open to holders of a master's degree in psychology or a master's in education with an educational-psychology, counseling-psychology or school-psychology specialization, to doctoral candidates with three or more years of postgraduate study, and to holders of a qualifying doctorate.

Those open entry routes do not make it a master's-level licence: the rule positions it as supervised trainee status, renewed annually, and the licence itself is doctoral-only.

Since January 1, 2020, applicants need an earned doctoral degree in a listed field: psychology with a specialization in clinical, counseling, school, consulting, forensic, industrial or organizational psychology; education with a specialization in counseling, educational or school psychology; or a field designed to prepare graduates for the professional practice of psychology.

The degree must come from a college or institution accredited by a regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, but that requirement does not apply to any student who was enrolled in a listed doctoral program at a nationally accredited or approved institution as of December 31, 2016, and the board makes the final call on any degree.

APA accreditation is not required.

Foreign degrees are read through an evaluation sent directly to the board by a member of NACES or NRHSP.

The same section adds coursework in chemical dependency detection and treatment, and in spousal or partner abuse assessment and intervention.

The statute asks for at least two years of supervised professional experience under a licensed psychologist's direction, at least one of them after the qualifying doctoral degree is awarded.

The rule defines one year as 1,500 hours, so the total is 3,000, and requires at least one year completed postdoctorally, meaning after the registrar or dean certifies all degree requirements are met.

Each year must fall within 30 consecutive months, and two postdoctoral years together within 60 months, unless the board modifies the limits for good cause.

Predoctoral hours cap at 1,500 and start counting only after 48 semester or trimester, or 72 quarter, units of graduate coursework.

The rule credits hours by placement status: a formal internship that is APA-accredited or an APPIC or CAPIC member, an exempt-setting job, work as a registered psychological associate, or a Department of Mental Health waiver.

Hours are credited by that status, not by what the activity is called, so a practicum is not by itself a route to creditable hours.

A maximum of 44 hours per week is credited.

The licensing examination is ASPPB's EPPP plus California's own CPLEE; the EPPP is waived for applicants who meet rule section 1388.6's criteria.

On exam timing, the statute and the rule disagree.

BPC 2914(d), as amended by SB 775 effective January 1, 2026, makes an applicant who has completed all academic coursework, as documented by the registrar, eligible to take any and all licensure exams, and excludes internships and the dissertation or thesis from that coursework.

The exam rule, 16 CCR 1388(c), whose latest filing in the capture read dates to 2022, ties the EPPP to a qualifying doctorate plus 1,500 hours of qualifying professional experience, and the CPLEE to passing the EPPP plus all 3,000 hours.

The statute is the later text; the sources read do not show the rule conformed to it, so confirm with the board before booking.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement was found in the rule read, and that question is time-limited: the single integrated EPPP becomes the first-time-taker exam in fall 2027 and the only version from April 1, 2028.

Each week of counted experience needs supervision for 10% of the total time worked, including at least one face-to-face, direct, individual hour with the primary supervisor, who must work in the same setting and be available 100% of the time the trainee accrues hours.

At most 44 hours per week is credited, supervision included.

Supervisor and trainee must prepare a written agreement before the experience starts; hours accrued before it exists do not count.

Supervisors may not charge the trainee for supervision, and hours worked while functioning under another mental health licence do not count.

Delegation opens with a carve-out, "except as provided in section 1391.5, which regulates the supervision of registered psychological associates," a rule not among the sources read, and BPC 2913(c)(1) leaves an associate's delegation to the board's regulations.

Within that limit, primary supervisors may delegate to other qualified psychologists or qualified mental health professionals, including licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed educational psychologists, licensed clinical social workers and board-certified psychiatrists, keeping the weekly individual hour and responsibility for compliance.

The registration is trainee status with teeth.

A registered psychological associate may not provide psychological services to the public except as a trainee under the section, and may not receive payments, monetary or otherwise, directly from clients, so compensation must run through the practice or employer rather than the client.

One licensed psychologist may supervise no more than three registered psychological associates at any given time, which matters when choosing a supervisor: a psychologist already at the cap cannot take on another trainee, however willing.

Supervision itself can be delivered in real time, in person or by synchronous audiovisual means, under the current text of the section.

The PSYPACT Commission map, as read in September 2026, places California among the non-PSYPACT jurisdictions with no active legislation.

Practically, a California-licensed psychologist cannot carry practice into participating states through PSYPACT, and a psychologist licensed in a PSYPACT state cannot use the compact's telepsychology or temporary-practice authorizations for clients located in California, because the compact runs only between participating states.

A clinician moving to California licenses on the terms in this page, and a California licensee moving away needs the destination state's own route.

Compact status changes as legislatures act, so check the PSYPACT map before relying on either direction.

The current continuing-education rule was not among the sources read: the 16 CCR 1397.61 text captured from Cornell LII is titled as effective until December 31, 2022, and its own text says the section is inoperative January 1, 2023, and repealed on December 31, 2023.

What follows describes that pre-2023 rule, not necessarily the one in force.

It has each licensee certify completion of the continuing education required by Business and Professions Code section 2915, and references the 36 hours of approved continuing education that section 2915(a) requires; it prorates a first renewal at 1.5 hours of approved continuing education for each month of licensure, caps independent learning at 75% of a first renewal's requirement, requires a laws-and-ethics certification each renewal, lists APA, CME and California Psychological Association providers, and bars repeating a course within a renewal period.

The currently operative CE rule, and whether the 36-hour figure still governs: Not stated in the sources read.

Confirm your requirement with the board before your renewal comes due.

Senate Bill 775, chaptered as Stats.

2025, ch. 787, amended both BPC 2913 and BPC 2914 with effect from January 1, 2026.

One visible mark of the current text is its supervision language: supervision may be provided in real time, in person or by synchronous audiovisual means, in compliance with patient-health-confidentiality laws.

What the pre-2026 text said was not among the sources read, so the exact scope of the change is not established; read the bill or ask the board if you need the before-and-after.

The supervised-experience rule, 16 CCR 1387, was amended in 2021, operative January 1, 2022 under SB 801, and again in 2022; the rule's history note describes both filings as changes without regulatory effect, so neither changed the rule's substance.

This page covers the Board of Psychology's psychologist licence and the registered psychological associate.

California credentials school psychologists separately, through a different board: the research for this page flags a separate LEP under the BBS and did not research it.

A school psychologist weighing the two tracks needs the LEP's own rules, and nothing in this page transfers to that credential.