Updated for 2026

South Dakota Psychologist Continuing Education Requirements

South Dakota psychologists must complete 15 continuing education hours per year to renew their Psychologist license.

total hours / year

Annual renewal · calculating the next statewide deadline

South Dakota Psychologist requirements

Requirement	Notes
Total continuing education	15 hours per year.
Renewal	Annual cycle: renewal filing due July 1 each year; license expires June 30.
Renewal fee	$300 board renewal fee per year.
New licensees	Newly licensed psychologists are exempt from continuing education for their first renewal: the requirement binds "[a] licensee, other than a licensee initially licensed after the first day of the annual licensure period" (ARSD 20:60:10:03), and the board's restatement is identical — a licensee first licensed after July 1, partway through an annual licensure period, owes no CE at the June 30 renewal that closes that period. The full 15-contact-hour requirement applies from the first complete July 1 - June 30 licensure period onward. Encoded as a general first-renewal exemption; the literal boundary reading (an initial license issued exactly ON July 1 is not "licensed after the first day" and would owe the full 1.5 units at its first renewal, having held the license for the entire period) is a theoretical edge flagged in the research notes for the reviewer.
Approved providers	All hours must satisfy the activity-level eligibility test of ARSD 20:60:10:02: "An activity is eligible for credit if it relates to the practice of psychology and either: (1) Improves or maintains the licensee's professional skills; or (2) Broadens or refreshes the licensee's knowledge of governing laws, rules or ethical standards." South Dakota has no provider-approval gate — no approved-provider roster, no sponsor classes, and no board pre-approval of courses or providers appears anywhere in chapter 20:60:10 — so no provider list is enforced (provider_lists_enforced: false); the licensee must instead attach the provider-issued certificate for each reported activity other than independent professional reading (20:60:10:03). The must_be_within_cycle_window flag is set because the 1.5 education units must be completed "during the annual licensure period" (20:60:10:03) and the renewal checklist counts only hours "taken within the previous licensure period" — no carryover provision exists, so hours earned in excess of the 15 contact hours in one July 1 - June 30 period cannot be applied to the next.
Recordkeeping	Keep CE documentation for 5 years after each course's completion date.

Limits on how the hours are earned

Board caps and floors on where the 15 hours can come from.

independent professional readingmax 5 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

STRUCTURE: South Dakota's chapter has no activity-type enumeration, no named or lettered activity groups, no rule requiring hours from a minimum number of categories, and no subject-matter (topic) floors — no ethics, jurisprudence, suicide-risk, cultural-competency, or telehealth hour mandates. Eligibility is the two-prong test of ARSD 20:60:10:02 (relates to the practice of psychology, plus improves or maintains professional skills OR broadens or refreshes knowledge of governing laws, rules or ethical standards); the law-and-ethics prong is an eligibility pathway, not an hours mandate. The single distinctly-treated activity is independent professional reading, whose five-contact-hour ceiling is encoded as the structured independent_reading_cap requirement.
FORMAT: No delivery-format quotas exist. Chapter 20:60:10 never addresses delivery format — it sets no cap on online, home-study, or correspondence coursework, no minimum for live or in-person hours, and no per-day, per-course, or per-instructor limits, so every engine verdict is identical to having no format quotas at all. The only activity-level ceiling in the chapter is the five-hour independent professional reading cap, encoded structurally as independent_reading_cap.
CREDIT CONVERSIONS: All activities are credited one-for-one. A contact hour is "one hour of participation in an activity that is eligible for credit under § 20:60:10:02" (ARSD 20:60:10:01(3)); the continuing education unit is a unit of measure — "ten contact hours" (20:60:10:01(4)) — so the 1.5-unit requirement is exactly 15 contact hours, not an activity multiplier. The current chapter (47 SDR 42, effective October 14, 2020) states no academic-semester-unit ratio, no teaching or presentation multiplier, no publication credit, and no board-certification credit. The pre-2020 chapter DID define an academic-credit conversion (one academic credit = 15 contact hours); the 2020 repromulgation removed it, and stale secondary mirrors (including Cornell LII's South Dakota snapshot) still reproduce the superseded definition. Because no teaching credit exists, no course-repeat restriction on teaching credit arises, and the chapter is silent on an attendee repeating a course within a period.
LICENSE STATUS RULES: South Dakota has no inactive license status and no retired or emeritus tier — "all licenses expire on June 30 of each calendar year" (board FAQ). A licensee who fails to renew by the first day of July forfeits the license (SDCL 36-27A-24). A forfeited license may be restored by making written application and paying the required renewal fee prior to the first day of January of the next year, following notification from the board (36-27A-24); no additional restoration or late fee beyond the renewal fee is stated. A person who does not apply for restoration before January 1 must complete the initial application process, including retaking the oral examination (board FAQ). There is no conditional or provisional registration for licensees short on CE: except as provided in the waiver section 20:60:10:04, "the board may not renew the license of a licensee who fails to comply with the requirements of this section" (20:60:10:03).
WAIVERS: A licensee may request a waiver of the continuing education unit requirement by applying in writing to the board, with reasons and supporting documentation (ARSD 20:60:10:04). The board may waive any part of the requirement for: (1) active duty service in the armed forces of the United States during any part of the annual licensure period; (2) an incapacitating illness or disability documented by a licensed physician; or (3) other facts and circumstances that the board, in its discretion, concludes prevented the licensee from completing the requirement. The waiver is period-specific and evaluated case by case; no maximum duration is stated.
OVERLAYS: South Dakota participates in PSYPACT — enacted as HB 1017 on 2024-02-13 per the compact map's "(Enacted 2/13/24: Effective 7/1/2024)" entry, effective July 1, 2024, and codified as SDCL chapter 36-27B ("Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact"). PSYPACT authority (APIT for telepsychology, Temporary Authorization to Practice for in-person work, built on an ASPPB E.Passport or IPC) is a mobility overlay carried on the South Dakota license with its own ASPPB-side credentials; nothing in chapter 20:60:10 attaches CE hours to it. South Dakota grants psychologists no prescriptive authority (no RxP tier exists in SDCL chapter 36-27A). The provisional license of SDCL 36-27A-12.1 (up to twelve months, for an applicant completing the supervised postdoctoral year) is a pre-licensure supervised tier that produces no June 30 renewal event, so the CE chapter's renewal-time reporting never arises for it.

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South Dakota Psychologist CE: frequently asked questions

How many CE hours do South Dakota Psychologist licensees need?

South Dakota requires 15 continuing education hours per year to renew a Psychologist license. Annual cycle: renewal filing due July 1 each year; license expires June 30.

How often do South Dakota Psychologist licensees renew?

Annual cycle: renewal filing due July 1 each year; license expires June 30.

How much does South Dakota Psychologist license renewal cost?

The board's renewal fee is $300 per year, per the South Dakota board fee schedule. CE course costs are separate and set by course providers.

Is the first renewal different for new South Dakota Psychologist licensees?

Newly licensed psychologists are exempt from continuing education for their first renewal: the requirement binds "[a] licensee, other than a licensee initially licensed after the first day of the annual licensure period" (ARSD 20:60:10:03), and the board's restatement is identical — a licensee first licensed after July 1, partway through an annual licensure period, owes no CE at the June 30 renewal that closes that period. The full 15-contact-hour requirement applies from the first complete July 1 - June 30 licensure period onward. Encoded as a general first-renewal exemption; the literal boundary reading (an initial license issued exactly ON July 1 is not "licensed after the first day" and would owe the full 1.5 units at its first renewal, having held the license for the entire period) is a theoretical edge flagged in the research notes for the reviewer.

Sources & verification

State source: South Dakota board rule
Fee schedule: South Dakota board fee schedule
Last verified: August 2026
Ruleset version: 2026.1

Reviewed against the South Dakota 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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South Dakotaguides & 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.

South Dakota mental health workforce data

2,928 active providers, or 313.1 per 100,000 residents, ranked 41 of 51. County density map and free CSV downloads.

Other South Dakota CE requirement pages

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