Updated for 2026

Utah Psychologist Continuing Education Requirements

Utah psychologists must complete 48 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their Psychologist license, including 6 hours of law & ethics.

total hours / 2 years

law & ethics hours

Biennial renewal · calculating the next statewide deadline

Utah Psychologist requirements

Requirement	Notes
Total continuing education	48 hours every 2 years.
Renewal	Biennial cycle: CE due by September 30 of even years.
Law & Ethics	6 hours required each cycle.
Format limits	Up to 18 hours may be completed through home study / self-study.
New licensees	First renewal is different: new licensees have adjusted first-cycle requirements (proration and/or first-cycle-only rules), which we apply automatically.
Approved providers	All hours must be completed within the two-year renewal cycle they are reported for — the engine's must_be_within_cycle_window flag enforces this: Utah Admin. Code R156-61-403(5) recognizes credit "for continuing education during each two-year renewal cycle," and the rule contains no carry-forward provision, so excess hours from one cycle cannot be applied to the next. No provider pre-approval gate applies: Utah approves no psychologist CE providers, publishes no approved-provider list, and sets no approved-provider percentage. Admissibility runs on the program-quality standards of R156-61-403(4): CE must "(a) have an identifiable clear statement of purpose and defined objective ... directly related to the practice of a psychologist; (b) be relevant to the licensee's professional practice; (c) be presented in a competent, well-organized, and sequential manner ...; (d) be prepared and presented by individuals who are qualified by education, training, and experience; and (e) have records of registration and completion available for review." The one source-class condition attaches to the 18-hour distance tier only: internet or distance learning courses must include an examination and a completion certificate and be "recognized by the APA or a state or province psychological association" (R156-61-403(5)(e)). The rule states no prohibition on repeating a course within a cycle.
Recordkeeping	Keep CE documentation for 2 years after the end of each cycle.
Board audit	The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.

Limits on how the hours are earned

Board caps and floors on where the 48 hours can come from.

home study / self-studymax 18 hrs
teaching or supervisionmax 10 hrs
clinical readingsmax 6 hrs
peer consultationmax 6 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

UNLIMITED CLASSROOM TIER: "unlimited hours for continuing education completed in blocks of time of not less than one hour in formally established classroom courses, seminars, or conferences" (Utah Admin. Code R156-61-403(5)(a)). There is no live or in-person minimum, no per-day (24-hour) cap, no per-course cap, and no single-instructor cap anywhere in R156-61-403. The rule does not expressly address live-interactive online events: this rule maps asynchronous internet/distance courses (the tier defined by an examination and a completion certificate, R156-61-403(5)(e)) to the 18-hour self-study cap and formally established live events — including live-interactive remote attendance at a seminar or conference — to the unlimited classroom tier, the reading recorded in the research document's interpretation flags.
TEACHING/SUPERVISION COLLECTIVE RECOGNITION: the rule affirmatively recognizes at most ten hours for the group of activities "teaching in a college or university, teaching continuing education courses in the field of psychology, or supervising an individual completing the experience requirement for licensure as a psychologist" (R156-61-403(5)(b)). The engine enforces this through a single format_cap keyed on the teaching_or_supervision category spanning all three activities — every engine verdict is identical to applying the rule's one collective ten-hour recognition directly. The rule places no limit on an instructor claiming credit for teaching the same course more than once; repeat teaching is bounded only by the same collective ten-hour recognition.
NO OTHER REQUIRED TOPICS: beyond the six-hour ethics-and-law floor of R156-61-403(5)(c), the rule mandates no subject-specific hours. In particular, no suicide-prevention CE requirement exists for Utah psychologists: Utah's two-hour suicide-prevention training mandate is statutory and binds individuals "licensed under this chapter" of Title 58, Chapter 60 — the mental-health professions (Utah Code § 58-60-105(3)) — not psychologists licensed under Chapter 61; neither R156-61-403 nor any other section of R156-61 states one, and the psychologist chapter's CE statute (§ 58-61-306) contains no such mandate. Commercial CE-vendor summaries that assert a suicide-prevention hour requirement for Utah psychologists conflate the two chapters; the codified rule controls, and NetCE's Utah psychologist page corroborates the codified position (48 hours, 6 ethics, 18 distance-learning, nothing else).
LICENSE STATUS RULES: a psychologist license may be placed on inactive status — "psychologist" appears in the division-wide eligibility list at Utah Admin. Code R156-1-305(1)(rr), as do the certified prescribing psychologist certification (R156-1-305(1)(f)) and the school psychological practitioner license (R156-1-305(1)(tt)) — and "may remain on inactive status indefinitely" (R156-1-305(3)). An inactive licensee is not renewing and does not complete the biennial CE while inactive. To reactivate, the licensee submits a verified application for activation with the appropriate fee and "documentation that the inactive licensee meets current renewal requirements" (R156-1-305(4)) — for a psychologist, the current cycle's standard R156-61-403 requirement, so no separate reactivation CE quantum exists and no conditional reactivation block is modeled. A licensee who activates during the last 12 months of a renewal cycle is licensed for a full renewal cycle plus the period remaining until the impending renewal date (R156-1-305(5)). Utah publishes no distinct retired-status tier for psychologists in R156-1-305.
WAIVERS AND VOLUNTEER CREDIT: under Utah Admin. Code R156-1-308d(1), a licensee may request a waiver of a CE requirement or an extension of time "due to a medical or related condition, humanitarian or ecclesiastical services, extended presence in a geographical area where continuing education is not available, or other reasonable cause"; the request is due no later than the CE deadline except for good cause shown, the licensee bears the burden of proof, and the Division may condition relief on completing specified hours before or after reentering practice. R156-61-403(3)(b) incorporates this: "The Division may defer or waive continuing education requirements as provided in Section R156-1-308d." Separately, R156-1-308d(2) lets the Division grant CE credit for volunteering as a subject-matter expert in the review and development of licensing exams for the licensee's profession — credited 1:1, treated as core/classroom/live credit, and countable at the licensee's discretion toward law or ethics CE requirements; log such hours as live classroom credit (with the law_and_ethics tag when applying them to the ethics floor).
REINSTATEMENT: renewal and reinstatement procedures follow Sections R156-1-308a through R156-1-308l (R156-61-402(2)). For a license that was active and in good standing at expiration, reinstatement between two and five years after expiration requires practice-reentry steps under R156-61-402(3): upon request, meeting with the Board for an evaluation; if recommended, a plan of supervision under an approved psychologist supervisor "that may include up to 4,000 hours of psychology training or mental health therapy training"; if the Board determines it necessary, taking or retaking the Utah Psychologist Law and Ethics Examination or the EPPP, or both; and completing "at least 48 hours of professional education in subjects determined necessary by the Board to ensure the applicant's ability to engage safely and competently in practice." These reentry hours are Board-directed and application-scoped, not a renewal-cycle CE requirement, so they are recorded here rather than as an engine requirement.
OVERLAYS: Utah participates in PSYPACT — the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact was enacted as Utah Code Title 58, Chapter 61b by S.B. 106, 2017 General Session, effective May 9, 2017. Authority to practice interjurisdictional telepsychology (APIT, on an ASPPB E.Passport) or temporarily in person (TAP, on an IPC) is a mobility overlay on the Utah home-state license renewed through ASPPB/PSYPACT Commission channels; it adds no Utah CE hours. Utah also grants prescriptive authority: S.B. 26, signed March 19, 2024, made Utah the seventh state to authorize specially trained psychologists to prescribe, through the certified prescribing psychologist and certified provisional prescribing psychologist certifications codified at Utah Code § 58-61-304(4)-(6). The certifications are overlays on the psychologist license — an applicant must already have authority to practice psychology under § 58-61-301 — and carry the SAME 48-hour CE obligation (R156-61-403(2)(a) names them expressly); the current rule text imposes no additional psychopharmacology-specific CE hours. Both certifications renew September 30 of even years (R156-1-308a).

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Utah Psychologist CE: frequently asked questions

How many CE hours do Utah Psychologist licensees need?

Utah requires 48 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 Utah Psychologist licensees?

Of the total, 6 hours must be in law & ethics.

How often do Utah Psychologist licensees renew?

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

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

Up to 18 hours may be completed through home study / self-study.

Is the first renewal different for new Utah Psychologist licensees?

First renewal is different: new licensees have adjusted first-cycle requirements (proration and/or first-cycle-only rules), which we apply automatically.

Sources & verification

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

Reviewed against the Utah 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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Utahguides & 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.

Utah mental health workforce data

18,620 active providers, or 526.2 per 100,000 residents, ranked 15 of 51. County density map and free CSV downloads.

Other Utah CE requirement pages

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