Psychologist Licensure in Washington, DC: Degree, Supervised Hours and the EPPP

DC issues one psychologist licence and one psychology associate registration, both under the DC Board of Psychology within DC Health.

The licence in chapter 69 is the independent credential; the registration in chapter 86 is the state's supervised master's-or-doctoral credential, and no supervisor may hold more than five associates at once.

The same registration is also the holding pen for doctoral trainees accruing hours in the District: a non-enrolled graduate must register as a psychology associate before accruing psychological practice experience in DC toward licensure, so a fresh PhD or PsyD relocating to DC to finish hours starts at the registration, not the licence.

The registration also has an inbound route: the board endorses a psychology associate who holds a valid, unrestricted registration in good standing from another US jurisdiction, on official proof of that registration and the § 8602.1 degree proof (8610).

Chapter 86 dates to the 2011 rulemaking and was last amended in 2019 (64 DCR 8268 in 2017, 66 DCR 12988 in 2019); the research pass found no 2023-2026 amendments to either chapter.

The degree rule has two gates.

The institution must have been accredited, at conferral, by a body recognised by the US Secretary of Education or the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (6902.1(a)), and the program must also carry the year's psychology designation: listing in ASPPB's Doctoral Psychology Program Meeting Designation Criteria or the National Register's, APA accreditation at the time the degree was awarded, conferral before 1981, or an active ABPP diploma (6902.1(b)).

The designation gate, and only that gate, is waived for an applicant enrolled in the doctoral program before April 15, 2011 (6902.8).

A foreign program not accredited under § 6902 has its own board route (6903.1): in lieu of the accreditation gate, the applicant submits proof of accreditation by a body recognised by the national government of the country where the institution sits, or a certification from a board-approved private evaluation service that the education is substantially equivalent (6903.2), with a possible board interview (6903.3) and certified translations of foreign-language documents (6903.4).

The checklist's World Education Services line is that evaluation route in practice.

The licence requires at least 4,000 hours of psychological practice experience.

The rule names two ways to arrange them: all 4,000 after conferral, taken over not less than two and not more than three years beginning the day after the degree; or up to 2,000 hours during a pre-doctoral internship with the remaining hours acquired within two years after conferral.

Either way, at least 2,000 of the 4,000 hours come after the degree — a doctoral internship can cover half at most, and as written the internship is the only pre-degree source the rule names; practicum hours are not listed as a counting category.

The experience itself must come through an APA-accredited or APPIC-member internship, an APA-accredited or APPIC-member postdoctoral program, or practice meeting the supervision criteria in § 6902.5, and the board may extend the two- and three-year limits for good cause.

DC accepts a score not lower than one-half standard deviation below the national mean on the EPPP, a successor exam the board accepts, or a passing ABPP score (6904.1).

EPPP authorisation runs 120 days and closes the application if it lapses without a board extension (6904.4); two consecutive failed attempts cost a one-year wait, then a year per further failure (6904.5).

The checklist lets candidates sit the EPPP once the application is approved as meeting the education and training requirements, including the practice hours.

Rule 6905.1 also requires the board's jurisprudence examination on DC laws, rules and ethical standards, available only after every other requirement is met (6905.2), with a six-month wait after two failures, then a year each (6905.6); the board may also interview.

The current checklist, though, states no DC exam is being given and substitutes a signed attestation on the study material — confirm which step applies to your file.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement was found in the DC sources read; ASPPB's integrated EPPP replaces both parts for first-time takers from fall 2027.

The route the hours take decides whose supervision counts.

An APA-accredited or APPIC-member internship or postdoctoral program qualifies wherever it was completed (6902.4(a), (b)); any other experience needs a primary supervisor licensed in a jurisdiction of the United States — not necessarily the District — who may delegate part of the supervision to another psychologist, a psychiatrist or an independent clinical social worker, with at least ten percent of total practice hours under the primary supervisor's immediate supervision and a rating of at least satisfactory from each supervisor (6902.5).

Hours accrued inside DC as a student or registered psychology associate are the stricter case: those sit under a District-licensed primary supervisor (6911.1), and a graduate who is no longer an enrolled student must hold the associate registration before the first countable hour (6911.3).

The board may waive specific 6902.5 requirements for experience begun before June 30, 2014 (6902.9).

Every supervisor signs an attestation setting out the supervision's details (6902.6), and the checklist routes the pre- and postdoctoral verification forms through the supervisors themselves.

The psychology associate registration carries hard limits: no independent practice, no compensation of any nature from patients — an employer salary is the allowed channel — services documented and invoiced so the supervisee's work is never billed as the supervisor's, and identification as a student or associate to every client before services begin.

For a master's-level graduate choosing where to settle, that makes DC a supervised-practice jurisdiction with no master's route to independence in its rules as read.

The psychologist licence is the independent credential, and DC psychologists have no prescriptive authority.

The DC Health psychology page links a Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact PDF that the research pass did not read; the PSYPACT Commission map, retrieved September 2026, is the layer that places DC among the effective members, under DC B 145, enacted and effective April 2, 2021.

For a DC psychologist that means the compact's two authorizations — telepsychology through an APIT and temporary in-person practice capped at 30 days a year — are available in other participating states through ASPPB's E.Passport or Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate.

The compact is doctoral-only, so a psychology associate cannot practise under it.

A psychologist licensed in another US jurisdiction who falls short on the practice-hour documentation can still meet the 4,000-hour requirement with at least two years of licensed, unsupervised practice, evidenced by a licence in good standing and a statement of the practice's location, duration, total hours and nature (6902.7).

An applicant who passed the exam more than five years before the application date is not required to retake it — but only if they do not qualify for licensure by reciprocity or endorsement under the Act and section 4014 of title 17, and demonstrate to the board's satisfaction that they have been continuously licensed and practising as a psychologist in the United States since passing (6904.2).

Both routes sit inside chapter 69's own text; the endorsement provisions they cross-reference sit outside the sources read.

Licences expire at midnight on December 31 of each odd-numbered year, and the first renewal after the initial grant is exempt from the CE rule.

Each two-year cycle takes thirty hours of continuing education: at least fifteen in live programs, ten percent in the public health priorities the Director publishes, three in ethics and two in LGBTQ continuing education.

The FY25 notice dated the CE window January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025 and listed a $203 psychology renewal fee, $115 for associates, and an $85 late fee assessed from January 1, 2026.

Psychology associates owe the same thirty hours under chapter 86, and DC Health's CE page adds a 50 percent proration for licensees with less than two years on their cycle while describing the hours as APA-approved.

The psychologist application checklist prices the application and licence fee at $322, with a $50 criminal background check paid online; the associate checklist lists $230 plus the same background check.

Every application carries three character references from people who are not relatives, instructors or employers and have known the applicant at least a year, an official transcript sent by the issuing institution, and, for foreign-language transcripts, a World Education Services evaluation.

Supervisors email the pre- and postdoctoral verification forms themselves, completed in every section, attesting to the 4,000 hours; the associate checklist asks for a transcript showing a master's degree in psychology.

Screening questions include DC's Clean Hands requirement, and any yes answer brings document uploads and an NPDB self-query report requested no more than thirty days before submission.