Policies and Procedures

Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology and Accreditation Operating Procedures (SoA-AOP) (PDF, 799KB)

Accreditation standards for doctoral, internship and postdoctoral residency programs and procedures that guide the accreditation process.

Click the links below to review each relevant section: 

Section A: Policies Governing Accreditation (PDF, 195KB) 

Section B: CoA Policy Statements – Philosophy, Values, and Responsibilities (PDF, 179KB)

Section C: IRs related to the Standards of Accreditation (PDF, 1.6MB)

Section C is designed as a companion piece to the SOA, containing statements and policies that elucidate, interpret, and operationally define the accreditation criteria. 

Section D: IRs related to the Accreditation Operating Procedures (PDF, 583KB)

Section D is designed as a companion piece to the AOP, containing statements and policies that elucidate, interpret, and operationally define the accreditation procedures. 

Section E: Self-Governance and Regulation (PDF, 540KB)

These Excel workbooks were developed to serve as templates for providing the data required by IRs C-26D, C-27I and C-23P in a clear and consistent format. These tables have been copied directly from the most recent version of the IR, approved by the Commission on Accreditation in April 2016.

To complete each table, simply enter the appropriate figures in each of the blank cells. Any table that includes percentages will have these figures automatically calculated based on the raw data that is entered. Once you complete all of your data entry, you can export the tables as a PDF, save each separate table as an image or have your web designers recreate them in the format that they require. It is critical that you keep the row and column labels from these tables. Your program will be considered out of compliance with the IR if they are not consistent with this document.

Please note that some of the worksheets have conditional formatting. If you enter numbers that will cause the percentages in a table to exceed 100 percent, the appropriate cells will turn red. This indicates that the raw data you've entered is incorrect. Some cells also have data validation enabled, which may cause hover text to appear. Click into a different cell and this text will disappear.

More complete information on what to include in the tables is provided in the Section C IRs for each level of training. Templates are available for programs as they prepare to make disclosure data public:

Doctoral: IR C-26 D template (XLS, 59KB)

Internship: IR C-27 I template (XLS, 42KB) IR C-27 I template (DOC, 34KB)

Postdoctoral: IR C-23 P template (XLS, 33KB) IR C-23 P template (DOC, 33KB)

If you have any questions about the format or content of this IR, please feel free to contact the APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation at (202) 336-5979 or by email.