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

South Dakota issues one psychology licence, psychologist, and one pre-licensure licence, a provisional license capped at twelve months for applicants completing the postdoctoral practice year.

The practice-and-title bar covers both halves of the work: holding yourself out as a psychologist and doing or attempting the practice each require the licence unless an exemption applies.

Everyone else works under an exemption or supervision rule specific to their stage: the postdoctoral supervisee practises under a title that clearly identifies training status, such as psychology resident, psychology associate, psychologist assistant, or psychologist trainee, with any other psychology-titled designation needing board approval (ARSD 20:60:06:01(2)); interns carry intern, resident or trainee titles (ARSD 20:60:08:01(8)); students carry training titles under SDCL 36-27A-2(3).

The degree floor is a doctoral degree from a regionally accredited university or professional school of psychology, or a Canadian institution recognized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada as a member in good standing.

The statute's program-in-psychology definition in 36-27A-1(2) then sets the shape of the training: at least three academic years of full-time graduate study with a psychology internship completed before the degree is awarded, at least two of those years at the degree-granting institution and one in full-time residence there, and demonstrated competence in each of four substantive areas — the biological, cognitive-affective, social, and individual-differences aspects of behavior — which a minimum of three or more graduate semester hours, or five or more graduate quarter hours, in each may satisfy.

No APA-accreditation mandate appears in the statute.

By unanimous vote the board may accept competence in three of the four areas against a satisfactory remediation proposal (36-27A-18).

Two supervised stages sit in the statute.

The internship must amount to not less than 1,800 hours and run over not more than two consecutive calendar years.

Separately, the applicant must have one year of supervised postdoctoral psychology practice — the rule as written keeps that year after the degree, and the sources read contain no route letting graduates of accredited programs count internship or practicum hours toward it.

The statute's newest amendment dates to SL 2008, so the requirement is long-settled text.

A graduate who has finished the internship and passed the written national examination may be issued the twelve-month provisional license to carry the postdoc year.

Otherwise the year can be completed exempt under SDCL 36-27A-2(3), which excuses persons engaged in obtaining their one year of supervised postdoctoral psychology practice, with a title that clearly identifies training status.

Candidates must pass both a written examination and an oral examination.

The written test is a national standardized examination, the EPPP, and complete applications must reach the board ten weeks before the testing date.

The oral exam concentrates on ethical and professional issues in clinical practice and may also evaluate the applicant's knowledge base; a majority of board members must hear and score it, and the pass mark is 75 percent.

The EPPP passing score for South Dakota is not stated in the sources read.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement was found — and from fall 2027 ASPPB's integrated EPPP replaces both parts for first-time takers, becoming the only version available from April 1, 2028.

The supervision floor changes as you move through the pipeline.

During the internship, at least 25 percent of the intern's time must be direct client contact, with a minimum of two hours a week of scheduled, formal, face-to-face individual supervision plus one more weekly hour of supervised learning activities, and at least two-thirds of internship supervision from psychologists licensed at the doctoral level.

During the postdoctoral year the floor drops to two hours a month of regularly scheduled, formal, face-to-face supervision, provided by one or more psychologists actively licensed at the doctoral level.

An intern's title must clearly identify training status, and during the postdoctoral year any other psychology-titled designation needs board approval; for an exempt nonprofit employee, the supervising psychologist sets the type and frequency of supervision.

There is no master's-level psychology licence in South Dakota.

The statute's one master's route, 36-27A-13, was a grandfather for practitioners who had a master's degree, had represented themselves as psychologists through the year before January 1, 1982, and applied by that date.

Master's-level staff today can work through the nonprofit-employee exemption, which reaches employees of public or private nonprofit organizations or institutions supervised by a licensed psychologist; ARSD 20:60:06:01(1) adds that the supervisee must hold a master's or doctoral degree in psychology.

It is not the only exemption: 36-27A-2 also excepts employees of regionally accredited academic institutions performing teaching, training or research duties, with no degree condition in the text, and students, interns and trainees carrying training titles.

Every such route is exempt status, not a licence, and none supports an independent psychology title.

South Dakota psychologists have no prescriptive authority.

The PSYPACT Commission map, as read in September 2026, lists South Dakota as a member in effect: H 1017, enacted February 13, 2024, effective July 1, 2024.

A South Dakota psychologist uses the compact to practise telepsychology or temporary in-person practice in other participating states, through ASPPB's E.Passport or Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate plus the matching PSYPACT authorization; temporary in-person practice is capped at 30 calendar days per year under the compact's rules.

PSYPACT is doctoral-only, so it extends to no supervisee or trainee title.

Renewal is annual, with a $300 renewal fee (ARSD 20:60:05:04).

The continuing-education rules define the annual licensure period as July 1 through June 30 (ARSD 20:60:10:01).

In it, a licensee shall complete 1.5 education units — a unit is ten contact hours, so the floor is 15 contact hours — and make a written report at renewal, attaching the certificate for every activity other than independent professional reading.

No more than five contact hours per year may be earned and reported from independent professional reading.

The 1.5-unit rule does not reach a licensee initially licensed after the first day of the period.

Except as provided in 20:60:10:04, which was not among the sources read, the board may not renew the licence of a licensee who fails to comply with that section's requirements (20:60:10:03).

The sections read record no 2023–2026 amendments to the licensure statute or its rules.

The statute's newest source line is SL 2008, the renewal-fee rule was last amended effective December 11, 2013, and the continuing-education rules took their current form effective October 14, 2020.

The one recent change touching practice is PSYPACT's implementing act, H 1017, effective July 1, 2024, covered in its own section.