The school psychology pupil services license issued by the State Board of Education transferred to the State Board of Psychology on Jan. 1, 2025. Here are answers to some common questions and concerns.
SBP has included OSPA in all its discussions with the groups impacted by this including the Inter-University Council (training programs), DEW Office for Exceptional Children and the State Board of Education Office of Licensure. Prior to his retirement in May 2024, SBP Executive Director Dr. Ron Ross was steadfast in his commitment to ensure this transition is as painless as possible. Incoming SBP Executive Director Karine Hray continues that commitment.
We've been sharing out these details via email to our members. If you aren't a member, now more than ever, is the time to JOIN.
Definitions:
- SBP = State Board of Psychology
- LSP = Prefix for your license once it moved from Education to Psychology. License number is LSP.XXX.
- 5-Year License = LSP License = school-based license
- 2-Year License = An Independent School Psychology license, which has been and continues to be issued by SBP. Also known as a Private Practice License. This allows for work outside of a school building. License numbers are SP.XXX
- CE = Continuing Education or Professional Development
The State Board of Psychology created a set of rules that will govern our license. As a result the following will occur or has already occurred:
- All licenses and permanent certificates became SBP licenses Jan. 1, 2025, with no paperwork or payment on your end.
- If your current pupil services license was expired on Dec. 31, 2024, it did not move and you must obtain a new license from SBP.
- You will first renew your SBP license by Sept. 30, 2025. The eLicense portal will open April 18 to allow for early license renewal.
- If your license is set to expire June 30, 2025, it will NOT expire then. It will have already become an SBP license that expires Sept. 30, 2025.
- Under the draft rules, no one will be required to show proof of continuing education credits (CEs) for the Sept. 30, 2025 renewal. You will first be required to show proof of hours in 2030.
Your CE requirement for the school-based license will be 50 hours – including 4 hours in ethics/professional conduct/cultural competence – over the five-year license period.
No CEs are required for the 2025 renewal.
There are several ways to show completion of the 50 hours including:
- A compliance report from your Local Professional Development Committees (LPDC) submitted to OSPA. (Unofficial LPDC Form)
- Proof of a current NCSP credential submitted to OSPA.
- Proof of a current independent school psychology (private practice) license under State Board of Psychology.
- Contracting with OSPA to track individual courses. You would register with and submit certificates of completion to OSPA. This is the same process as for the independent license through SBP.
If you held a permanent certificate in school psychology:
- Your credential is no longer permanent. It became a license under SBP on Jan. 1, 2025. The law did not grandfather this group.
- You will be exempt from showing proof of CE compliance in perpetuity and will not need to contract with OSPA for CE reporting.
- You will not, however, be exempt from paying the renewal fee every five years.
State Board of Psychology has a "school psychologist-retired" license, which allows you to maintain a license at a reduced fee with no CE compliance. You may not, however, practice under this license. The benefit is that if you opt to reinstate your full license, there will be no penalty fee for having an expired license. You would be asked to show CE compliance and pay the full fee at the time of reinstatement. Assuming your license moved to SBP Jan. 1, you would be able to seek the retired license when you renew in 2025.
Everyone's school-based school psychology license or certificate will expire Sept. 30, 2025 - EVERYONE'S!
- The renewal fee – as set in law – will be $300. This will be required of everyone by Sept. 30, 2025.
- The renewal portal opens extra early in 2025 - April 18.
- Renewal is through a system called eLicense. You should have received an email from SBP in January inviting you to login. If you have not, please contact them as they might have an outdated email.
- When completing your renewal in eLicense, you will be asked a series of yes/no questions related to competencies. You should answer these truthfully and the answers will not impact your ability to be licensed. The board references these for all its licensees when dealing with complaints/investigations.
- Background checks/fingerprinting are NOT required for RENEWAL with SBP, only on initial licensure. Your employer likely requires regular background checks, but you should not pay to send this also to SBP for the sake of renewal.
- You/your employer can look up your active license at psychology.ohio.gov using the License Lookup feature. INSTRUCTIONS
The State Board of Psychology opted to open the eLicense portal for LSP licensees very early in 2025. This was designed to alleviate a couple concerns we heard:
- If you renew in spring/early summer, you will be able to show your district you have a "pending" renewal for purposes of contract renewals. If your district balks at renewing your contract because your license will expire after Sept. 30, renew early to assure them it will remain active for all of next school year.
- If you are graduating from your training program in spring 2025, you will be able to obtain your license ahead of the start of the school year to ensure you can be hired and also avoid having to renew you license in September. Your license effective date will be upon approval of the board and continue through 2030.
The State Board of Psychology also licenses school psychologists who work in private practice. This license is now called an "Independent School Psychology" license.
- If you hold a private practice license through SBP, nothing will change for you aside from the license now being called “independent school psychologist.”
- You will still renew on even numbered years.
- The license is still for two years only.
- The two licenses are separate.
- You can use proof of an active 2-year license as evidence of completion of CE requirements for the LSP license.
- The Office for Exceptional Children will continue to be our partner in all things school psychology.
- The temporary licenses granted to interns to allow them to work in schools during their internship will remain with the State Board of Education as a temporary pupil services license. The law did not touch this element, so new school psychs will hold a temporary license through State Board of Education during their internship and then have to apply with SBP for their full license.
- If you hold a second license at the State Board of Education, your licenses will no longer be connected and you will not receive the discount for the second license. You will have to pay the education and psychology boards separately.
- If your employer needs to verify that your license is active, they may look up any license via a public search on the State Board of Psychology's website. Follow these instructions.
As referenced above, OSPA is named in the law as being the entity that certifies to SBP that a person has completed their continuing education requirement. This is not something OSPA sought, nor were we consulted by lawmakers on this change. As many of you know, OSPA is a two-employee operation, so we are grappling with how our staffing must change in order to track CEs for roughly 3,000 licensees.
CE tracking has been an OSPA practice for those with two-year independent licenses, as SBP does not have the infrastructure to verify whether individuals have completed their hours.
OSPA has created accounts on our website for all licensees. This will be where you upload documentation of your CE completion. This service will be included in OSPA members and for a small fee for nonmembers. It will begin in October of 2025.
OSPA does not expect nor is trying to profit from this new responsibility.
Here are links to the various rules:
Rules for Continuing Education
Rules for Reporting Continuing Education
Rules for Initial Licensure as a School Psychologist
Rules for Licensure in Another State
Always feel free to reach out to us with your questions and concerns.
