Psychologist Licensure in North Dakota: Degree, Supervised Hours and the EPPP

North Dakota issues two licences — psychologist and industrial-organizational psychologist — and registers psychology residents and industrial-organizational psychology residents.

The licence requirement reaches both practising psychology and holding yourself out as able to, and it protects the titles psychologist and psychology resident.

The resident registration is the pre-licensure stage: a registrant of the board who is actively engaged in supervised practice, not a lesser licence.

The industrial-organizational psychologist licence is a distinct track covering psychological research or consultation services to a group or an organization; its definition excludes delivering or supervising services to individuals.

The practice clause treats the tracks separately: practising psychology takes a psychologist licence or a psychology resident registration, while practising industrial-organizational psychology takes a psychologist or industrial-organizational psychologist licence, or either resident registration.

The degree gate is accreditation: a doctorate degree from a program accredited as a doctoral program in psychology by an accrediting body approved by the board by rule.

The rule names the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association as the approved accreditors for both the practitioner and the industrial-organizational tracks.

For industrial-organizational applicants the rule adds two routes: a program that substantively adheres to the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's doctoral-level education and training guidelines (August 1999 version) meets the degree requirement, as do programs designated as doctoral I-O programs by both ASPPB and the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology (NDAC 66-02-01-06(2), 66-02-01-12.1).

The ethics rule reaches applicants too — the APA's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, amended 2010, apply to any individual licensed by the board or any applicant.

The statute asks for at least two full years of supervised professional experience, an internship year and a second year that may be postdoctoral.

The internship half is 1,500 hours of supervised predoctoral internship with at least 100 hours of supervision, at least 50 one-to-one; an APA- or CPA-accredited internship is accepted as fulfilling it.

For the second half the rule requires "one or a combination of" two options: 1,500 hours of supervised postdoctoral experience with the same supervision minimums — an APA- or CPA-accredited postdoctoral program accepted — and/or 1,500 hours of additional supervised predoctoral training.

The predoctoral option must meet the rule's fifteen requirements; among them: part of the qualifying doctoral program; within six years of the terminal doctoral degree and ten years of first application; after a 600-hour introductory practicum; under an individualized written plan approved in advance; at least 30 weeks with 15 hours weekly onsite; and weekly individual supervision of at least one hour per 15 onsite hours, at least half from the primary supervisor.

The national written examination is the EPPP, and the passing score is a scaled score of 500.

North Dakota also requires its own professional responsibility examination on the state's law, ethics and standards of practice.

The board administers it as a structured oral before a committee of at least two board members; the committee records the applicants' answers, recommends a result, and passage requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the board members present.

The fee schedule reserves a place for a written version of the exam once it is developed.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement was found in the rules read, and that question is time-limited anyway: ASPPB's integrated EPPP replaces both parts for first-time takers from fall 2027 and is the only version from April 1, 2028.

The resident rules let a registered psychology resident sit for the national written examination and, having passed it, for the professional responsibility examination.

For the postdoctoral employment half, the primary supervisor must be a psychologist with at least three years of post-license practice experience and a competency in supervision in the general area of practice being supervised.

Supervision must occur weekly and total at least 100 hours of direct supervision, face-to-face or through distance communications, with at least 50 of those hours from the primary supervisor; the board may set prorated amounts for part-time paths by rule.

The resident rules set the bar on the front end too: before a resident practises at all, the supervising psychologist's form must be on file, and supervisors must hold a licence in good standing, at least three years of licensure, adequate training and skill or access to consultation, and the continuing education the CE rule requires, including the supervision credits.

Resident status runs up to three years.

The practice of psychology is defined broadly: observing, describing, evaluating, interpreting and modifying human behavior by psychological methods, testing and assessment including neuropsychological functioning, counselling and psychotherapy, behavior analysis and therapy, and diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorder — with supervising others engaged in the practice counted within it.

The industrial-organizational licence sits outside that individual-facing scope by definition.

The chapter's final section draws the hard line: nothing in the chapter permits a licensee to administer or prescribe drugs or engage in the practice of medicine.

North Dakota psychologists therefore hold no prescriptive authority under this chapter.

North Dakota enacted the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact through S 2205, enacted April 13, 2023 and effective August 1, 2023; the PSYPACT Commission map, as read in September 2026, lists the state as a member in effect.

The compact is doctoral-only, so it is a route for licensed psychologists, not for registered residents.

A psychologist licensed in North Dakota uses ASPPB's E.Passport or Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate plus the matching PSYPACT authorization to practise telepsychology into another participating state or work there temporarily in person, and psychologists authorized under PSYPACT in other member states can serve North Dakota clients on the same terms.

Out-of-state psychologists have structured routes; every applicant must pass the North Dakota oral examination or, once developed, the professional responsibility examination, as the board determines.

The expedited-licensing rule admits an individual licensed in good standing in another jurisdiction on verified documentation of graduation from an accredited program at the degree level sought, a previously passed national exam, licensure and discipline history, and endorsements from board-approved behavioral health professionals; the board may also require an ethics/laws/rules exam.

It separately admits holders of ASPPB's Certificate of Professional Qualification and applicants under an interstate compact adopted by the state.

While an application pends, the board may grant a provisional licence valid six months to an applicant in good standing with no disciplinary actions in the previous five years, with extensions of up to six months on good cause.

A psychologist or industrial-organizational psychologist licensed in good standing elsewhere may practise no more than thirty full or partial days per calendar year under a limited practice certificate, upon prior written application to and approval by the board.

Licences renew annually: every licensee applies for renewal by November fifteenth, the renewal certificate commences on January first, and a licensee may not hold out as a psychologist until the annual fee is paid.

Continuing education runs on two-year reporting cycles: at least 40 credits per cycle, reported by the November 15 after the cycle ends.

Within the 40, every licensee needs at least 3 credits in ethics, law or jurisprudence, and licensees supervising psychology residents or registered applied behavior analysts need at least 3 credits in supervision.

The rule caps writing-and-speaking credits and correspondence-or-online credits at 20 per cycle each, and the board audits approximately ten percent of licensees at random each reporting period — keep documentation for two years.

The research read located no 2023-2026 rule change for North Dakota and recorded the latest amendments as effective January 1, 2020.

The saved rule text carries one later entry: the expedited-licensing and provisional-licence rule was amended effective October 1, 2024, so check the board's site for the current text of that rule.

The sources also leave one date open — the effective date of the additional-predoctoral-hours option in the supervised-experience rule was not isolated from the rule's history.

The dated change the sources do establish is PSYPACT: S 2205, effective August 1, 2023.