The Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology (SoA) outline training requirements for programs at the doctoral, doctoral internship, and postdoctoral levels. Correspondent to the AOP are a set of Implementing Regulations (IRs), which are official policy documents that “elucidate, interpret and operationally define” the Commission on Accreditation’s (CoA) policies and procedures. IRs are divided into several different sections (A through E), which are subject to regular review and revision by the CoA. Opportunities for clarification have arisen regarding an IR in Section C, which relates specifically to the SoA.
Per the SoA’s Postdoctoral Residency I.A.2, the CoA requires that residency program be a minimum of a one-year full time in no less than 12 months (10 months for School psychology) or two years of half-time training in no more than 24 months. An opportunity for clarification has arisen regarding IR C-2 P which focuses on the accreditation process for postdoctoral residency programs with a focus on programs’ principles and format. The Commission is proposing additions including a condition for what constitutes a program graduate and a need for a justification of programs longer than one year of full-time training.
In accordance with the APA “Policies for Accreditation Governance” and the US Department of Education regulations for public notice and comment, the CoA is making the proposed revisions available for a sixty (60) day period of public review and comment at http://apps.apa.org/