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

Ohio issues three licences under chapter 4732: psychologist, independent school psychologist and school psychologist.

The psychologist licence is the doctoral credential; the other two are the school psychology track, issued on at least a master's degree in school psychology.

An applicant for any of them must be at least twenty-one years of age.

The statute sets separate admission-to-examination requirements for each licence, so a school psychology licence is not a step toward the psychologist licence — each track is admitted to its own examination.

The default route is an earned doctorate from an accredited institution whose program was accredited by the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Psychological Association's accreditation office, the ASPPB/National Register designation committee, or the National Association of School Psychologists.

Non-accredited doctorates in psychology or school psychology (B)(2)(b) and foreign equivalents (B)(2)(c) are also eligible, but a postdoctoral year attaches to those routes.

Two safety valves widen the accredited route: a program accredited within two years of the degree being awarded counts as accredited, and a doctorate in a non-applied branch can qualify through a specialty retraining certificate from an APA- or CPA-accredited clinical, counseling or school psychology program.

Every applicant needs at least two years (3,600 hours total) of supervised professional experience, and at least one year must be a predoctoral internship.

For graduates of accredited programs, the second sequence can be full-time or part-time post-internship (including post-doctoral) training, a combination of qualifying doctoral program placements, or a mix of the two — so no postdoctoral year is required.

The placement route asks for a minimum 1,600-hour sequence, taken after at least 48 semester hours of coursework and a 400-hour introductory practicum.

An internship without APA or CPA accreditation or APPIC membership can still qualify if pre-approved and judged equivalent, running at least 1,500 and at most 2,000 hours over no less than 12 months (or nine months for school psychology internships) and no more than 24 months.

Applicants on the non-accredited and foreign routes must instead complete at least one year of the two postdoctorally (ORC 4732.10(B)(4)).

Applicants must demonstrate a passing score on the EPPP, received directly from ASPPB; the score itself is published on the board's website and was not stated in the sources read.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement was found in the rules read.

The exam question is time-limited anyway: 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, so confirm with the board which version you will sit.

Separately, after passing the national exam, each candidate must pass an examination administered under the direction of the board; the exam may include, but is not limited to, chapter 4732, the board's rules, related Revised Code provisions, professional ethics and standards of care.

The detailed internship criteria are the equivalent route's, not every internship's.

An APA- or CPA-accredited or APPIC-member internship qualifies under (B)(1)(a) by documentation alone; an internship similar in structure and substance must be pre-approved by the doctoral program's director of training and judged by the board to satisfy (B)(1)(b)(i)–(x): face-to-face services on no less than 25 per cent of the intern's time, weekly individual face-to-face supervision of at least one hour per twenty internship hours, and two hours per week of didactic activities.

No less than 75 per cent of that supervision must come from a psychologist or school psychologist licensed by this board, or licensed in another jurisdiction when the experience took place there or when practising legally in Ohio, or from a post-doctoral trainee supervising under an umbrella arrangement with one; allied mental health professionals may provide no more than 25 per cent.

Of the post-internship second-sequence options, only a (B)(2)(b) experience subsequent to the internship must meet the internship criteria; an APA-accredited or APPIC-member postdoctoral program qualifies by documentation alone under (B)(2)(a).

Ohio's master's-level credentials are the school psychology licences, both on at least a master's degree in school psychology; no general master's-level clinical psychology licence was found in the sources read.

For the independent school psychologist licence, the statute and rule state the experience requirement differently: ORC 4732.10(C)(5) asks for at least twenty-seven months, exclusive of internship, of full-time certificated school psychology experience, while OAC 4732-9-02 (eff 2025-01-01) asks for at least four years of school psychology experience — one year of school psychology internship of no less than 1,200 hours, or other training experience acceptable to the board, credited toward at most one year, and at least two years practising school psychology employed by a board of education or a private school meeting prescribed standards.

The rule lifts the course work to at least 90 graduate quarter hours or 60 semester hours, and the OAC 4732-11-01(E) board exam applies to independent school psychologist applicants too.

A master's-trained clinician who wants a psychologist licence must complete the doctorate, and the sources read record no prescriptive authority for Ohio psychologists.

Ohio is a PSYPACT member in effect: the commission's map, as read in September 2026, records OH S 2, enacted April 27, 2021, effective July 26, 2021.

An Ohio-licensed psychologist uses PSYPACT to practise telepsychology, or practise temporarily in person, in other participating states, through ASPPB's E.Passport or Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate plus the matching PSYPACT authorization.

PSYPACT is doctoral-only — it covers psychologists licensed on a doctoral degree — so Ohio's master's-level school psychology licences cannot use it.

By August 31 of each even-numbered year, a psychologist or independent school psychologist must have completed, in the preceding two-year period, not less than 23 hours of continuing education in psychology, including not less than 4 hours in professional conduct, ethics, or the role of culture or ethnic identity in practice.

The school psychologist licence runs its own cycle: 50 hours per five-year period, due by August 31 of each year ending in zero or five, including not less than four hours of continuing education in one or more of the same topics.

The board shall adopt rules reducing the hours for licensees in their first registration period, and it may excuse holders in cases of unusual circumstance, emergency or special hardship.

The admission statute, ORC 4732.10, was amended by HB 509 of the 134th General Assembly effective April 6, 2023, and by HB 33 of the 135th effective October 3 and December 29, 2023.

The supervised-experience rule, OAC 4732-9-01, took effect December 31, 2023 — that is the rule as read; the date the predoctoral-placement option for the second sequence was first introduced could not be isolated.

The examination rule, OAC 4732-11-01, and the independent school psychologist admission rule, OAC 4732-9-02, both took effect January 1, 2025.

The CE statute, ORC 4732.141, was amended by HB 509 effective April 6, 2023.

A doctoral degree from an institution outside the United States is evaluated for equivalence to a US doctoral degree in psychology or school psychology: the institution must appear in the International Handbook of Universities or the Commonwealth Universities Yearbook, and a NACES-member credential evaluation service must judge the transcript equivalent, at the applicant's expense.

The board waives that credential evaluation for degrees from programs accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association's accreditation panel.

Separately, ORC 4732.10(B)(2)(d) admits an applicant who has held a psychologist license, certificate, or registration required for practice in a Canadian jurisdiction for a minimum of ten years, on educational, experience and professional requirements the board sets by rule.

The postdoctoral year does not reach that route: ORC 4732.10(B)(4) attaches it to applicants under divisions (B)(2)(b) and (c) only.