Updated for 2026

Oregon Psychologist Continuing Education Requirements

Oregon psychologists must complete 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their Psychologist license, including 4 hours of law & ethics, 4 hours of cultural competency, 2 hours of suicide risk assessment, and 1 hour of pain management.

total hours / 2 years

law & ethics hours

pain management hours

cultural competency hours

suicide risk assessment hours

Biennial · renewal date depends on the licensee's birth month.

Oregon Psychologist requirements

Requirement	Notes
Total continuing education	40 hours every 2 years.
Renewal	Biennial cycle: renews at the end of your birth month.
Law & Ethics	4 hours required each cycle.
Cultural Competency	4 hours required each cycle.
Suicide Risk Assessment	2 hours required each cycle.
Pain Management	1 hour required each cycle.
New licensees	"New Licensees. There is no continuing education reporting required for individuals licensed twelve months or less on their first renewal date" (OAR 858-040-0015(2)); the board CE page: "New licensees (licensed less than one year) are not required to complete any CE until after their first renewal." Because the biennial expiration is anchored to the birth month, a first cycle can run up to 24 months — a first-cycle licensee licensed MORE than twelve months on the first renewal date is not exempted by any provision and owes the standard requirements, which is why this override is conditioned on months licensed, not on first renewal alone.
Approved providers	Oregon runs a no-pre-approval model: "*The Board does not pre-approve CE courses or providers.*" (board CE page). There is no approved-provider list, sponsor tier, or percentage requirement. Acceptability is criteria-based: the subject matter must deal "primarily with substantive psychological issues, skills or Oregon laws, rules and ethical standards related to one's role as a psychologist or psychologist associate," the program must be conducted by a qualified instructor or discussion leader, and a record of attendance must be obtained (OAR 858-040-0035(1)); "Responsibility for documenting the acceptability of the program and the validity of credit rests with the licensee" (OAR 858-040-0065(2)). Credits must be earned during the period between license renewals (OAR 858-040-0015(1)) — no carryover provision exists, and audit make-up hours "may not be double counted towards a subsequent reporting period" (OAR 858-040-0070(7)(e)). Attendees face no repeat-course prohibition; the only repeat restriction is lecturer-side (OAR 858-040-0035(2)(g)(B)).
Recordkeeping	Keep CE documentation for 2 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 30-day grace period after expiration and a late fee.

Limits on how the hours are earned

Board caps and floors on where the 40 hours can come from.

home study or study groupmax 20 hrs
lecturer or publicationmax 20 hrs
readingmax 4 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

ACTIVITY STRUCTURE: OAR 858-040-0035(2) enumerates the qualifying activities — (a) substantive professional development programs of recognized mental health organizations, (b) university/college courses (one qualifying hour per classroom hour), (c) formally organized workplace educational programs, (d) formally organized study groups, (e) home study including internet and tele-courses, (f) published articles and books authored or co-authored by the licensee, (g) lecturer service (first presentation only), (h) service as an Oregon Board of Psychology member or committee volunteer, (i) ethics committee meetings of professional associations, (j) formal trainings on office records organization, records maintenance and security procedures, or billing software instruction, and (k) reading books or articles from peer-reviewed journals (home study). Activities are NOT organized into named groups or lettered categories, no rule requires drawing from a minimum number of activity types, and no per-activity hour FLOOR exists; the only floors are the subject-matter minima of OAR 858-040-0015(3). The pre-2022 list also allowed supervision or consultation received for a fee; the current roster omits it, so supervision received is no longer a qualifying CE activity.
NON-QUALIFYING PROGRAMS (OAR 858-040-0036): marketing, investments, and practice-building strategies; yoga and therapeutic massage; non-clinical administrative staff meetings; word-processing computer skills; therapies not widely recognized as within the scope of practice of psychology through research or scientifically demonstrated clinical effectiveness; and "Programs that are completed to fulfil the terms of a Board order or agreement do not qualify towards the continuing education requirements for licensure renewal or reinstatement" (§ 0036(6)).
COMBINED-CAP ARITHMETIC: the board's 20-hour ceiling covers "home study and study group hours combined" (OAR 858-040-0055(2)), and reading is itself home study (OAR 858-040-0035(2)(k)) with its own tighter 4-hour ceiling (OAR 858-040-0055(5)). The engine enforces the 20-hour ceiling on the home_study_or_study_group bucket and the 4-hour ceiling on the reading bucket as separate caps — every configuration is enforced at or below the board's limits except the single corner where a licensee sits at BOTH ceilings simultaneously (20 home-study/study-group hours plus 4 reading hours = 24 counted where the board's reading-inclusive combined limit is 20); that corner is disclosed here deliberately and falls to manual review. A schema-level multi-category collective cap would be required to close it exactly.
READING VS ETHICS COMPOSITION: "No more than two hours of reading may be used to fulfill the professional ethics continuing education requirement" (OAR 858-040-0055(5)). This limits the intersection of a source activity (reading) with a subject floor (professional ethics) — a composition the engine cannot represent structurally — so it is carried here in prose: a licensee satisfying the 4-credit ethics/Oregon-law floor should count no more than 2 reading-derived hours toward it.
MEASUREMENT AND CARRYOVER: "Credit shall be given for actual hours attended" (OAR 858-040-0055(1)) — a 1:1 clock-hour baseline with no 50-minute contact-hour system. No carryover permitted: the rules contain no provision carrying excess hours into the next reporting period, and audit make-up hours "may not be double counted towards a subsequent reporting period" (OAR 858-040-0070(7)(e)). Enforced structurally by must_be_within_cycle_window.
LICENSE STATUS: active and semi-active licensees owe the same CE — semi-active status (available at age 62+ with no more than twenty client contact hours per week, OAR 858-010-0041(2)(b)) carries CE "the same as for active licensees as described in OAR 858-040-0015" (OAR 858-010-0041(2)(a)). Inactive licensees may not practice and owe no CE reporting (OAR 858-040-0015(5); OAR 858-010-0050(1)), and no CE reporting is required for licensees requesting a change from active or semi-active to inactive status (OAR 858-040-0015(4)). There is no retired status. HARDSHIP: "The Board may grant exemptions in whole or in part from continuing education requirements, including extension of deadlines, in documented hardship cases" (OAR 858-040-0015(6)); the delinquent renewal fee may likewise be waived for documented hardship (OAR 858-010-0041(4)(a)(A)).
CONDITIONAL REGISTRATION: none exists. A licensee short on CE has no conditional or provisional registration path; the audit-side cure mechanism (30 days to complete deficient hours, fines, and suspension at 90 days, OAR 858-040-0070(7)) is a sanction, not a registration status.
OVERLAYS AND OTHER CREDENTIALS: Oregon is NOT a PSYPACT member — the board's General Practice page answers "Will Oregon Join PSYPACT?" with "The short answer: no.", and House Bill 3339 (2025), the PSYPACT bill, "was not successful" (board practice page). Oregon grants psychologists no prescriptive authority. Limited permits (ORS 675.063) are temporary practice authorizations outside the biennial CE scheme. The Psychologist Associate is a separate master's-level license that shares this CE rule (OAR 858-040-0035(1)(a) names "one's role as a psychologist or psychologist associate"); it practices under supervision by default and may obtain board-approved independent status only after at least three years of proficient work (OAR 858-010-0039). School psychologists practicing in school settings as employees of educational institutions are exempt from the psychology licensing act entirely (ORS 675.090) and are credentialed through the education system.

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Oregon Psychologist CE: frequently asked questions

How many CE hours do Oregon Psychologist licensees need?

Oregon requires 40 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew a Psychologist license. Biennial cycle: renews at the end of your birth month.

How many ethics hours are required for Oregon Psychologist licensees?

Of the total, 4 hours must be in law & ethics.

How often do Oregon Psychologist licensees renew?

Biennial cycle: renews at the end of your birth month.

Are there subject-specific CE requirements for Oregon Psychologist licensees?

Yes. In addition to ethics, Oregon requires 4 hours of cultural competency, 2 hours of suicide risk assessment, 1 hour of pain management.

Is the first renewal different for new Oregon Psychologist licensees?

"New Licensees. There is no continuing education reporting required for individuals licensed twelve months or less on their first renewal date" (OAR 858-040-0015(2)); the board CE page: "New licensees (licensed less than one year) are not required to complete any CE until after their first renewal." Because the biennial expiration is anchored to the birth month, a first cycle can run up to 24 months — a first-cycle licensee licensed MORE than twelve months on the first renewal date is not exempted by any provision and owes the standard requirements, which is why this override is conditioned on months licensed, not on first renewal alone.

Sources & verification

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

Reviewed against the Oregon 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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Oregonguides & 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.

Oregon mental health workforce data

40,053 active providers, or 937.2 per 100,000 residents, ranked 4 of 51. County density map and free CSV downloads.

Other Oregon CE requirement pages

Oregon LPC Oregon LMFT Oregon LCSW