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

Hawaii issues two psychology licences: psychologist and associate psychologist.

The associate psychologist licence is new — Act 93 of 2024 made it effective July 1, 2026 — and it is a provisional credential, valid one year, for doctoral graduates finishing supervised training.

Despite the word “associate,” it requires a doctorate; Hawaii has no master's-level rung.

The prescribing pilot adds a third phrase to the statutes, “psychologist certified to prescribe,” but that is a definition inside the controlled-substances chapter, not a licence the board issues.

An associate psychologist practises only inside the training program the board approved, under the supervisor the licence names.

The degree must be doctoral, and the statute names the two routes: an American Psychological Association approved program in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, or a combination of those areas; or a professional psychology training program awarded by an institution of higher education or from a regionally accredited institution.

The rule, HAR § 16-98-9, grounds the degree in at least three academic years of full-time graduate study and sets the coursework floors: a minimum of six graduate semester hours in each of six substantive content areas, from biological bases of behavior through therapy, and three graduate semester hours in each of four more, including scientific and professional ethics and standards.

Graduates of programs that are not APA-approved in clinical psychology may need to file a Training Report (form PSY-02) documenting the program.

Two supervised stages are required.

First, the internship: an APA-approved internship, or one year of supervised experience in health service in psychology in an organized health service training program — the application quantifies it as at least 1,900 hours and says the pre-doctoral internship must be part of the doctoral program.

Second, the postdoctoral year: the statute asks that the applicant has completed one year of post doctoral supervised experience in health service in psychology, and the application says at least 1,900 hours.

Hawaii grants no offset for internship or practicum hours above the requirement.

The application's only stated exception spares applicants who enrolled in graduate school before January 1, 1986.

The statute requires that the applicant has passed an examination as may be prescribed by the board; the application names the EPPP, administered through ASPPB at Pearson VUE test centers (year-round applications; Oahu test center).

HAR § 16-98-30, last amended October 1991, sets seventy-five per cent for the State jurisprudence examination in psychology and seventy per cent of the maximum raw score for the EPPP written examination — paper-and-pencil-era language.

The jurisprudence exam is not universal: the only rule requiring a Hawaii-law exam is § 16-98-16(e), for examination-waiver and temporary-permit applicants; for the regular route, § 16-98-29(b) folds Hawaii law-and-rules questions into the EPPP itself, and the current application names only the EPPP — confirm the live format and pass standard with the board.

ASPPB's integrated EPPP takes over for first-time takers from fall 2027 and is the only version from April 1, 2028.

Since July 1, 2026, an associate psychologist may sit the board's examination as soon as the provisional licence issues; the authorization ends when the licence expires or if disciplinary action is taken on it.

The associate psychologist licence is built around one training arrangement.

The applicant must be engaged in post-doctoral supervised experience in an organized health service training program approved by the board, and the licence itself carries the supervising psychologist's name; the supervisor must hold a current, active and unencumbered licence and must tell the board within ten days when supervision ends.

The licence is valid one year to fulfill the requirements for full licensure and is not renewable — an associate who needs more time reapplies.

Changing supervisors means filing a new notarized supervision form before the old arrangement ends, or the licence goes inactive.

The board's FAQ covers reactivation with form LB-52 and a $12 fee.

Services provided by a supervised associate psychologist are eligible for insurance reimbursement when the supervising psychologist is a contracted provider and the billed rate is commensurate with the requisite level of training.

Hawaii also now has the narrowest kind of prescriptive authority: a three-year pilot, run by the state health planning and development agency with the board, letting qualified clinical psychologists prescribe psychotropic medication at federally qualified health centers in the counties of Kauai and Hawaii, to patients between 18 and 65, under a supervising physician or psychiatrist.

Eligibility, per § 2(b), requires the HRS § 465-7 licence, specialised education approved by both the American Psychological Association and the board, the Psychopharmacology Examination for Psychologists or an equivalent board-approved national examination, and employment by — including as a contract provider — a federally qualified health center in a participating county.

Prescriptions are Medicaid-reimbursable to the extent a physician's would be; “psychotropic medication” includes controlled substances but not narcotics.

The pilot is uncodified session law; the only permanent statutory change is a definition in HRS § 329-1.

Hawaii is not a PSYPACT state.

The PSYPACT Commission's map, as read in September 2026, lists Hawaii among the states with no enacted legislation and no active bills, so a Hawaii psychologist cannot use PSYPACT authorization to practise telepsychology or temporary in-person care elsewhere, and out-of-state PSYPACT psychologists cannot use it to practise into Hawaii.

Practice across state lines would need a licence in the other state.

For a Hawaii clinician, that also means no compact route around Hawaii's own requirements for patients located here.

Hawaii has no reciprocity agreement with any state, the board's application and FAQ say outright.

The application's examination-waiver route, whose items also serve temporary-permit applications, adds to — never replaces — every examination-route requirement: a current licence or certificate in good standing in another state the board deems equivalent to Hawaii's, an EPPP score at or above the board's then passing score, a personal interview, and an examination covering chapter 465 and its rules (HAR § 16-98-16).

Separately, HRS § 465-7(b) — notwithstanding subsection (a) — licenses, on its own application, the holder of an ABPP diplomate certificate in good standing, a current ASPPB Certificate of Professional Qualification, or a current National Register credential.

The § 465-7(c) senior route stacks four conditions: a valid and current licence in another jurisdiction where the EPPP was not required or where the applicant's score met the board's then passing mark; twenty sequential years of doctoral-based US or Canadian licensure; no disciplinary sanction anywhere during the licensed period; and a filed application with fees.

Out-of-state postdoc hours may be accepted.

Every licence renews biennially, on or before June 30 of each even-numbered year; a licence not renewed forfeits, though one forfeited for a year or less can be restored by paying the renewal fee.

Each biennium requires a minimum of eighteen credit hours of continuing education.

First-time licensees were already exempt from that requirement at their first renewal; the 2024 amendments, effective July 1, 2026, extended the same first-renewal exemption to associate psychologists licensed under HRS § 465-7.2.

A licensee short on hours may file a notarized affidavit and seek an extension, completing thirty-six hours the next biennium.

The board audits compliance on a random basis, and an audited licensee has 60 days to submit documentation.

Hawaii's psychology statute changed twice recently.

Act 93 of 2024 took effect July 1, 2026: it created the associate psychologist licence in HRS § 465-7.2, let those licensees sit the board's examination when the provisional licence issues — an authorization that terminates if the provisional licence expires or disciplinary action is taken on it — and extended the existing first-renewal CE exemption to associate psychologists.

Act 266 of 2026 — SB 847 CD1 — established the prescribing pilot.

The legislature's record shows it became law without the Governor's signature on July 16, 2026.

The act directs the state health planning and development agency to report on the pilot no later than twenty days before the 2029 regular session, with a recommendation to expand it, make it permanent, or end it.

Until then, prescriptive authority stays confined to the pilot's settings.