Updated for 2026

Ohio Psychologist Continuing Education Requirements

Ohio psychologists must complete 23 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their Psychologist license, including 4 hours of ethics or cultural competency.

total hours / 2 years

ethics or cultural competency hours

Biennial renewal · calculating the next statewide deadline

Ohio Psychologist requirements

Requirement	Notes
Total continuing education	23 hours every 2 years.
Renewal	Biennial cycle: CE due by September 30 of even years.
Ethics or Cultural Competency	4 hours required each cycle.
Format limits	Up to 23 hours may be completed through home study / self-study.
New licensees	Licensed between October 1 of the biennium's first year and September 30 of its second (e.g. 10/1/2024–9/30/2025 for the 2024–2026 biennium)? Your first renewal requires 13 hours of continuing education — including at least 4 hours in professional conduct, ethics, and/or the role of culture or ethnic identity — completed by August 31 of the renewal year.
Approved providers	Credit is given for any CE program not specifically disapproved by the board that is designated as acceptable by a relevant accrediting authority and that meets the criteria of Ohio Admin. Code 4732-2-01(C)(2): the program must be presented within an organizational structure that assures accountable administrative control, accurate attendance records, and professional responsibility for course design and implementation ((C)(2)(a)), and must be relevant to the practice of psychology in terms of subject matter and level ((C)(2)(b), per R.C. 4732.141(C)). The authorized approving organizations, per 4732-3-01(O) and R.C. 4732.141(B)(1), are the State Board of Psychology itself, the Ohio Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the Ohio School Psychologists Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the Ohio Association of Black Psychologists. Completion must be registered with the Ohio Psychological Association or the Ohio School Psychologists Association — the board accepts CE evidence only from those two recording associations (4732-2-01(B)(1); 4732-2-02(B)). Courses from other providers are not categorically inadmissible: they are reviewed case by case through the recording association's single-course review (graduate-level content relevant to the practice and science of psychology; OPA charges non-members $50 per review, members free), and the board may approve continuing education on its own initiative, maintaining a list of such approvals on its website (www.psychology.ohio.gov) and providing it to OPA and OSPA so board-approved CE reaches licensees' records (4732-2-01(C)(5)). Because that case-by-case path makes the approved-provider classification non-exhaustive, the provider list is informational rather than an automatic pass/fail gate. must_be_within_cycle_window is the enforced no-carryover flag: every credit must be completed within the biennium's September 1 - August 31 accrual window, and hours never carry over into another biennium (OPA: 'All hours must be earned between these dates and do not carry over to the next biennium'; OSPA: 'Courses taken in one biennium DO NOT carry over into another biennium').
Recordkeeping	Keep CE documentation for 3 years after the end of each cycle.
Board audit	The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.
Late renewal	A late renewal allows a late fee.

Limits on how the hours are earned

Board caps and floors on where the 23 hours can come from.

volunteer servicemax 7 hrs
home study / self-studymax 23 hrs

Keeping the proof in order: what to keep for a CE audit, with every state’s retention period and what the audit notice asks for.

Full board policy details

PROVIDER AND RECORDING MODEL: Ohio's test is not a closed provider list. Content must be acceptable to one of six statutory accrediting authorities — the board, OPA, APA, OSPA, NASP, or the Ohio Association of Black Psychologists (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-3-01(O), R.C. 4732.141(B)(1)) — or approved through single-course review, and every credit must be REGISTERED with OPA or OSPA, the only bodies whose documentation the board accepts as evidence of completion (4732-2-01(B)(1); 4732-2-02(B)(1)-(2)). OPA-/OSPA-approved providers report attendance directly; APA- and NASP-approved course certificates must be submitted to the recording association by the licensee; all other courses need the association's single-course review. Separately, 4732-2-01(C)(3) provides that hours of credits recognized by OSPA and/or OPA as meeting the CE requirements for any school psychologist certificate or license issued by the STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION — the legacy education-side credential, a distinct credential from the psychology board's own LSP license — shall also qualify for hours for renewal of licenses issued by the state board of psychology.
DELIVERY FORMAT: No self-study cap and no live-hour minimum. 'Distance learning courses may be used to satisfy all 23 hours of continuing education required in Ohio' (OPA 2024-26 psychologist instructions); 'Online Courses may be used to satisfy all 23 hours … provided that 4 hours of the 23 meet the requirements of ORC 4732.141' (OSPA). The rule draws no live/self-study distinction; hours must represent actual time spent in qualifying continuing education (4732-2-01(C)(1)).
NO CARRYOVER: Hours must be earned within the biennium's September 1 – August 31 window and 'do not carry over to the next biennium' (OPA 2024-26 instructions; OSPA states 'Courses taken in one biennium DO NOT carry over into another biennium'). The rule text reinforces the window's edges: deficiency-cure hours completed after August 31 of a renewal year 'shall not count toward completion of CE requirements for the subsequent biennium' (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-2-01(C)(4)(b)(ii)).
DEADLINE STRUCTURE: Three dates close each biennium. (1) August 31 of the even-numbered renewal year — CE must be completed and verification sent to the board; failure may result in expiration of the license on September 30 (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-2-01(C)(7)). Courses taken in August of the renewal year must be submitted to the recording association before September 15 (OPA/OSPA instructions). (2) September 15 — licensees whose OPA/OSPA record is inadequate for renewal are so notified (4732-2-02(B)(6)). (3) September 30 — biennial registration and fee due; failure results in automatic suspension of the license (4732-1-06(A)).
DEFICIENCY CURE (board-disapproved courses only): If the board determines after March 1 of a renewal year that continuing education already completed by a licensee is unacceptable, the licensee is allowed until the end of the calendar year to complete equivalent hours; the license does not expire if all other requirements are met by September 30 and the deficiency is corrected by December 31. Hours completed after August 31 and applied to the deficiency do not count toward the next biennium (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-2-01(C)(4)(b)). This is the only cure period — there is no general conditional or provisional registration for licensees short on CE.
ASSOCIATION-REVIEWED ACTIVITIES: Through single-course review the recording associations grant credit for taking a graduate-level psychology course (face-to-face hours = CE earned), teaching a graduate-level psychology course (face-to-face hours = CE earned; credit 'only given once for teaching the same graduate course or conducting the same workshop in multiple biennium'), publishing a peer-reviewed article (OPA assigns 1–7 hours; OSPA guidance for its registrants says 5–10), and publishing a book (OPA: up to 20 hours; OSPA: 10–20), with writings published or accepted during the biennium (OPA 2024-26 psychologist instructions; OSPA independent-license CE page). The course activities carry the associations' fixed one-for-one rate (face-to-face hours = CE earned), and the teaching activity is encoded as a credit_conversion at that rate, carrying its once-per-course restriction. The hour awards for WRITINGS, by contrast, are reviewer-assigned ranges under the negotiated recording procedures of 4732-2-02, not fixed ratios, so they remain documented in prose rather than encoded as conversions. The codified rule's only conversion is volunteer service at one hour per sixty minutes (4732-2-01(C)(2)(c)(v)), and re-attending a course is not prohibited by rule.
NONCOMPLIANCE AND REINSTATEMENT: Two distinct adverse outcomes close the biennium. (1) SUSPENSION — failure to register and pay the biennial registration fee by September 30 of the even-numbered year results in automatic suspension of the license, unless the board has excused the licensee, in writing, from all or any part of the CE requirements under R.C. 4732.141(F) and 4732-2-01(C)(10) (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-1-06(A)). (2) EXPIRATION — failure to meet CE requirements or to have verification of the hours sent to the board by August 31 may result in expiration of the license on September 30, and 'if reinstatement is desired, such individual shall be required to submit a formal request for reinstatement of licensure' (4732-2-01(C)(7)). For a license that EXPIRES pursuant to R.C. 4732.14, rule 4732-1-06(E) provides the reinstatement path, available within five years of expiration: within one year, reinstatement is automatic on payment of the biennial registration fee plus the penalty fee and either a certified OPA/OSPA record of the CE requirements in effect at the most recent renewal deadline or a written fee/CE waiver under R.C. 4732.14 or 4732.141(F), which substitutes for that certified record; after one year, the board additionally requires approval of a sworn statement of psychological activities since expiration, acceptance of evidence of CE completed 'either during the previous two years or during the biennium,' and, if deemed necessary, an examination (4732-1-06(E)).
WAIVERS AND STATUSES: Hardship — on written petition showing an unusual circumstance, emergency, or special hardship, the board may excuse all or part of the CE requirements, set conditions, and require make-up CE; petitions are due by August 1 of the renewal year (Ohio Admin. Code 4732-2-01(C)(10), R.C. 4732.141(F)). Military — registration fee and CE are waived during active duty in the U.S. armed forces, on request and approval (4732-1-06(C)). Retired status (R.C. 4732.142) — CE is waived (4732-1-06(D)); the retired license does not permit practice; reinstatement within five years carries no penalty fee — within one year it is automatic with the registration fee and a certified CE record, after one year the board adds a sworn activities statement, CE evidence from the previous two years or biennium, and a possible oral examination (4732-1-06(G)). There is no inactive status for these licenses.
OVERLAYS AND SCOPE: Ohio participates in PSYPACT (S 2, enacted April 27, 2021, effective July 26, 2021; codified at R.C. 4732.40) — PSYPACT authority to practice (APIT/TAP on an ASPPB E.Passport or IPC) is a mobility overlay on the Ohio license with its own ASPPB-side renewal and adds no hours to this CE requirement. Ohio grants psychologists no prescriptive authority; the definitions rule frames medication involvement as consultative with the prescribing physician (4732-3-01(B)(3), (C)). This file covers the Licensed Psychologist only. The Independent School Psychologist (SP-prefix, the former private-practice school psychology license) shares this biennial CE rule but is a separate credential; the Licensed School Psychologist (LSP-prefix, school-based, moved to this board from the Department of Education and Workforce on January 1, 2025) follows a separate quinquennial rule — fifty clock hours per five-year period due September 30 of years ending in zero or five, with LPDC, NCSP, and permanent-certificate compliance alternatives (4732-1-06(B); 4732-2-01(D)) — and the School Psychologist Interstate Licensure Compact is an LSP-side overlay. Certified Ohio Behavior Analysts are a different profession under R.C. Chapter 4783; school-psychology intern licenses remain with the State Board of Education.

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Ohio Psychologist CE: frequently asked questions

How many CE hours do Ohio Psychologist licensees need?

Ohio requires 23 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew a Psychologist license. Biennial cycle: CE due by September 30 of even years.

How many ethics hours are required for Ohio Psychologist licensees?

Of the total, 4 hours must be in ethics or cultural competency.

How often do Ohio Psychologist licensees renew?

Biennial cycle: CE due by September 30 of even years.

Can Ohio Psychologist licensees complete CE online or by home study?

Up to 23 hours may be completed through home study / self-study.

Is the first renewal different for new Ohio Psychologist licensees?

Licensed between October 1 of the biennium's first year and September 30 of its second (e.g. 10/1/2024–9/30/2025 for the 2024–2026 biennium)? Your first renewal requires 13 hours of continuing education — including at least 4 hours in professional conduct, ethics, and/or the role of culture or ethnic identity — completed by August 31 of the renewal year.

Sources & verification

State source: Ohio board rule
Last verified: August 2026
Ruleset version: 2026.1

Reviewed against the Ohio board source and refreshed from the compiled ruleset above. Methodology and disclaimer. Compliance data is for guidance only, not legal or board advice. Always confirm requirements with your licensing board before renewing. See something wrong? Report it →

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Ohioguides & data

What to keep for a CE audit

What boards ask for in a CE audit, how long each state says to keep certificates, what the notice looks like, and a printable checklist.

Ohio mental health workforce data

63,778 active providers, or 535.9 per 100,000 residents, ranked 14 of 51. County density map and free CSV downloads.

Other Ohio CE requirement pages

Ohio LPC Ohio LMFT Ohio LCSW