Psychology

Regulations of the Commissioner of Education

Part 72 Psychology.

§ 72.1 Professional study of psychology.

1. To meet the professional education requirement for admission to the licensing examination, the applicant shall present evidence of a doctoral degree in psychology awarded upon completion of a doctoral program in psychology registered by the department and designated as licensure qualifying, or determined by the department to be the substantial equivalent in design, scope, content and resources to a New York State-registered program that is licensure qualifying as defined in subdivision (b) of this section.
   
   
2. To be determined the equivalent of a New York State-registered and licensure qualifying doctoral program in psychology, a program shall be:
   
   
   1. offered by an institution accredited by an accrediting organization acceptable to the department or recognized by the appropriate civil authorities of the jurisdiction in which the school is located as an acceptable doctoral program in psychology;
      
      
   2. designed and conducted by the degree-granting institution to prepare graduates to practice professional psychology independently; and
      
      
   3. demonstrated to be substantially equivalent to the requirements for the registration of a licensure qualifying doctoral program in psychology pursuant to Part 52 of this Title. Such program shall consist of at least three years of full-time study, or the part-time equivalent thereof, including at least 30 semester hours of coursework obtained at the doctoral degree-granting institution.
   
   

§ 72.2 Experience.

1. For licensure, an applicant shall present evidence satisfactory to the State Board for Psychology of two years of full-time supervised experience, or the part-time equivalent thereof, such experience to consist of 3,500 clock hours, in accordance with the requirements of this section. Of such two-years of experience, one year of full-time supervised experience or its equivalent, consisting of 1,750 clock hours, shall be required for admission to the licensure examination. Applicants completing the doctoral degree requirements on or after October 1, 1992, shall present evidence that at least one of such two years of required experience was gained after the date that the institution which granted the doctoral degree in psychology has determined is the date that the applicant completed all requirements for that degree.
   
   
2. Content.
   
   
   1. The experience shall consist of a planned programmed sequence of supervised employment or engagement in appropriate psychology activities performed in accordance with the definition of the practice of psychology contained in section 7601-a of the Education Law and satisfactory in quality, breadth, scope and nature.
      
      
   2. In addition to other forms of satisfactory experience, the department may accept up to one year of the following:
      
      
      1. a university-approved doctoral-level practicum, internship, field experience, or applied research experience, any of which shall integrate psychological knowledge and application, provided that the research experience shall not be part of the applicant's dissertation or thesis requirement; and
         
         
      2. teaching the subject of psychology as a faculty member, provided that the teaching meets the requirements for acceptable experience imposed by this section.
         
         
3. Setting. For a setting to be acceptable, it shall meet the following requirements:
   
   
   1. The setting shall provide services defined in the practice of psychology, as set forth in section 7601-a of the Education Law.
      
      
   2. The setting shall provide supervision by a qualified psychologist who is responsible for the design, coordination, integrity, and quality of the applicant's experience. The supervisor shall be the owner of, be employed by, or be a consultant to the entity in which the experience occurs, provided that on or after January 1, 1988, a qualified consultant providing supervision shall be retained by such entity.
      
      
   3. The setting shall provide titles to the unlicensed individuals gaining experience for licensure that conform to the requirements set forth in section 7605 of the Education Law. Employment titles which do not include the word psychology or a derivation thereof may be used if the experience is consistent with the definition of the practice of psychology in section 7601-a of the Education Law.
      
      
   4. The setting in which the experience is gained shall be responsible for the services provided by individuals gaining experience for licensure.
      
      
4. Duration.
   
   
   1. Acceptable experience shall consist of a continuous experience within periods of at least six months, except that experience in academic settings shall consist of a continuous experience within a period of not less than one semester and, in the case of teaching experience, shall consist of not less than six credit hours per semester. The six-month periods of experience or the semesters of experience shall not be required to be immediately successive one after the other.
      
      
   2. Full-time experience shall consist of at least 35 hours per week, and for experience gained on or after January 1, 1998, not more than 45 hours per week.
      
      
   3. Part-time experience shall consist of at least 16 hours per week but not more than 34 hours per week, which shall be distributed over at least two days.
      
      
5. Supervision.
   
   
   1. Supervision shall be provided by a psychologist licensed in the jurisdiction where the supervised experience occurs. The supervisor shall be the owner of, be employed by, or be a consultant to the entity in which the experience occurs, provided that on or after January 1, 1988, a qualified consultant providing supervision shall be retained by such entity. In an exempt setting, as defined in section 7605(1) of the Education Law, the supervisor shall have qualifications satisfactory to the department, based on a review of factors which include but are not limited to: educational attainment of the supervisor and position held by the supervisor.
      
      
   2. For experience gained prior to January 1, 1998, the following requirements shall apply:
      
      
      1. Supervision shall occur weekly in direct human service settings and shall include at least one hour per week of face-to-face individual supervision pertaining to services rendered and, for experience gained after January 1, 1988, one additional hour per week in other learning activities including face-to-face supervision, seminars, group supervision or apprenticeship activities. Supervision of part-time experience shall in no instance consist of less than one hour per week of face-to-face supervision.
         
         
      2. Supervision in other than direct human service settings, including academic, industrial and research settings, shall comprise at least two hours biweekly in such learning activities as face-to-face individual supervision, seminars, group supervision or apprenticeship activities. Supervision of part-time experience shall in no instance consist of less than one hour biweekly.
         
         
   3. For experience gained on or after January 1, 1998, the following requirements shall apply:
      
      
      1. For every full-time experience, supervision shall occur weekly and shall include one hour per week of face-to-face individual supervision pertaining to services rendered and one additional hour of supervision which shall be either face-to-face supervision, group supervision, seminars or workshops, or apprenticeship activities.
         
         
      2. For every part-time experience, applicants shall have two hours of supervision within every two week period, one hour of which shall be face-to-face supervision; and one hour of which shall either be face-to-face supervision, group supervision, seminars or workshops, or apprenticeship activities.
         

§ 72.3 Licensing examination.

1. Content. The licensing examination shall consist of an examination designed to test knowledge related to all areas of psychology.
   
   
2. The department may accept scores satisfactory to the State Board for Psychology on the examination(s) of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, or an examination determined by the department to be comparable in content, as meeting the requirement for passing the licensing examination.
   
   
3. Passing score. The applicant shall pass the examination with a converted score of at least 75.0 as determined by the State Board for Psychology.
   
   

§ 72.4 Limited permits.

1. The department may issue a limited permit to practice psychology to an applicant who meets the requirements of subdivisions (b) or (c) of this section.
2. Upon recommendation of the State Board for Psychology, the department may issue a limited permit to practice psychology to an applicant who meets the requirements of this subdivision.
   1. The applicant shall:
      1. file with the department an application on a form provided by the department together with the statutory fee for the limited permit;
      2. be of good moral character, as determined by the department;
      3. hold a certificate or license to practice psychology issued by another state or country, and be qualified for admission to the examination for licensure as a psychologist, as prescribed in section 72.3 of this Part; and
      4. have resided in New York State for a period of not more than six months prior to the filing of the application for the limited permit.
   2. The limited permit issued pursuant to this subdivision shall be valid for a period of not more than 12 months, or until 10 days after notification to the applicant of failure of the professional licensing examination or until the results of a licensing examination for which the applicant is eligible are officially released, whichever comes first. Such limited permit shall not be renewable.
3. Upon recommendation of the State Board for Psychology, the department may issue a limited permit to practice psychology to an applicant who meets the requirements of this subdivision.
   1. The applicant shall:
      1. file with the department an application on a form provided by the department together with the statutory fee for the limited permit;
      2. be of good moral character, as determined by the department;
      3. have completed all doctoral degree requirements, including the doctoral dissertation, for a program that meets the professional study requirements for licensure in psychology in accordance with section 72.1 of this Part, except that the applicant shall not be required to have actually received the degree;
      4. submit adequate documentation that the applicant has arranged for a supervised experience, approved pursuant to section 72.2 of this Part, and needs the limited permit to participate in the experience. Such documentation shall identify the individual who has responsibility for supervising the applicant's experience while under the limited permit, and include a signed statement by the supervisor certifying that he or she will provide supervision of the applicant's experience.
   2. The limited permit issued pursuant to this subdivision shall be valid for an aggregate of not more than three years. Such limited permit may be renewed by the department for one additional one-year period, provided that the applicant documents that he or she has arranged for a supervised experience, approved pursuant to section 72.2 of this Part, needs the limited permit to participate in the experience, and has good cause that prevented the applicant from meeting the experience requirement for licensure while under the original limited permit, including but not limited to, any of the following reasons: a specific physical or mental disability certified by an appropriate health care professional; or extended active duty with the Armed Forces of the United States; or other good cause which in the judgment of the department made it impossible for the applicant to complete the experience requirement for licensure while under the original limited permit.

§ 72.5 Exempt practice.

A psychologist eligible for exempt practice in accordance with section 7605(4) of the Education Law, shall notify the department of the time and place of such exempt practice. Practice under this one-time exemption shall not exceed 10 consecutive business days or a total of 15 business days in a 90-day period.