Psychologist - Rules in Progress | Washington State Department of Health

Rules in Progress

The rule-making process is open to the public. The public is welcome to take part in helping us write rules. Rules are also known as regulations, Washington Administrative Code, or WAC. The rule-making process includes public notices and workshops, and usually a public hearing before a rule becomes final.

To get updates about rule making and other topics related to psychologists, subscribe for updates at the bottom of the page.

Current Rules in Progress

Second Substitute House Bill 1724 (SSHB 1724) – Increasing the Behavioral Health Workforce (2023) and Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2247 (ESSHB 2247) – Addressing behavioral health provider shortages (2024)

CR-101 Filed May 2, 2024 (PDF)

Complete information on the implementation work of Second Substitute House Bill 1724 is on the Behavioral Health Legislative Implementation webpage.

Section 6(a) of SSHB 1724 instructs the board to adopt emergency rules by July 1, 2024, to implement changes to licensing requirements to remove barriers to entering and remaining in the health care workforce and to streamline and shorten the credentialing process.

Section 6(b) of SSHB 1724 also instructs the board to adopt permanent rules for the same purpose by July 1, 2025. As a result, the board is looking for public feedback on areas that were identified through prior workshops that fall under the indicated purpose.

ESSHB 2247 creates a new psychological associate license and authorizes the board to adopt rules waiving any of the licensing requirements, as determined by the board, for an applicant who has continuously held a psychology license in good standing in another jurisdiction for a period of time that renders the waived licensing requirements duplicative or unnecessary.

The board will be hosting a series of workshops to ask for public feedback. You do not need to register in advance to participate in the workshops. You can join using the meeting link or phone number listed below. Please note the first login information is for the daytime sessions and the second set of login information is for the evening sessions. All sessions will be held using Microsoft Teams.

Daytime Sessions	Evening Sessions
Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 238 987 404 969 Passcode: HSyjAk Dial-in by phone +1 564-999-2000,,904265399# United States, Olympia Find a local number Phone conference ID: 904 265 399#	Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 278 562 960 35 Passcode: t8AtFQ Dial in by phone +1 564-999-2000,,547074689# United States, Olympia Find a local number Phone conference ID: 547 074 689#

Date and Time	Topic	Handouts
June 4, 2024, at noon	Review draft supervised experience rules	Supervised Experience Draft Rules (clean copy) (PDF) Supervised Experience Draft Rules (copy with edits) (PDF) Rules Workshop Slide Deck #1 (PDF)
June 5, 2024, at 5 p.m.	Review draft rules on education, examination retakes, residency, and endorsement	Education, Exam, Residency, and Endorsement Draft Rules (clean copy) (PDF) Education, Exam, Residency, and Endorsement Draft Rules (copy with edits) (PDF) Rules Workshop Slide Deck #2 (PDF)
June 6, 2024, at noon	New psychological associate license and waiver for long-time practicing providers	Psychological Associate Draft Rules (PDF) Rules Workshop Slide Deck #3 (PDF)
June 11, 2024, at noon	COVID-19 Policy Statements on telepsychology and virtual supervision	Telepsychology Policy Statement (PDF) Virtual Supervision Policy Statement (PDF)
June 12, 2024, at noon	National Examination and any other topics of interest
June 13, 2024, at noon	All topics previously discussed - recap
June 18, 2024, at noon	Canceled
June 20, 2024, at noon	Tentative

While you are welcome to provide any feedback for the identified topic areas, the board is seeking specific feedback on the following matters:

Current Rule	Feedback Request
HB 2247 creates a psychological associate license. The requirements are: Applicant must either be enrolled in a psychology doctoral program or participating in a postdoc. Applicant must be deemed competent to practice under supervision by the director of clinical training or postdoctoral supervisor. Applicant can only practice under supervision.	What should supervision look like? How can competence be determined in a consistent manner for all applicants? Can it be just as simple as being enrolled in doctoral program or does it require passage of certain courses? Could this be part of the supervision agreement where the supervisor attests to their competence among the other supervision details?
HB 2247 authorizes the board to adopt rules waiving any of the licensing requirements, as determined by the board, for an applicant who has continuously held a psychology license in good standing in another jurisdiction for a period of time that renders the waived licensing requirements duplicative or unnecessary.	How many years of practice in good standing would be sufficient to render a provider as having met the equivalence of meeting licensing requirements? Should it be different from state vs country?
During COVID-19 the board issued a policy statement (PDF) allowing virtual supervision to meet the “face-to-face” requirements for pre-internship and internship hours.	Should this exception be adopted indefinitely? Should the meeting cadence for virtual supervision be different than the cadence for hybrid / in-person? What have been the benefits of allowing virtual supervision? What are the risks the board should be aware of with allowing virtual supervision? Should there be a cap on how many virtual supervision hours are allowed or should it be up to the supervisor?
During COVID-19 the board issued a policy statement (PDF) allowing telepsychology to fulfill the “direct experience” or “direct client contact” for practicum, pre-internship, and internship.	Should this exception be adopted indefinitely? What have been the benefits of allowing telepsychology? What are the risks the board should be aware of with allowing telepsychology during the training phase? Should there be a cap on how many telepsychology hours are allowed or should it be up to the supervisor?
Based on prior workshops, the board drafted new rules language surrounding supervised experience. Changes included: Consolidating preinternship and postdoc into one category labeled “Other Supervised Experience” with one set of requirements. Changing all breakdown of hours into minimum percentages for clarity. Reducing the direct contact minimum required hours for Other Supervised Experience. Creating a uniform set of supervision agreement requirements. Detailing the internship requirements based on APA or non-APA pathway. Full new draft language can be found under the handouts column in the table above.	Do the changes make it clearer how to report supervised experience? Are there any areas that are still confusing or need more detail?
In an effort to reduce barriers to licensure the board has drafted proposed changes to include: Reduce the educational meetings residency pathway from 750 to 500 hours. Provide more detail on what does and doesn’t meet the educational meetings requirements to count the hours. Reduce the waiting period an applicant must wait before they can retake the EPPP. Clarify the criteria for courses completed outside the doctoral degree to count towards meeting the educational requirements. Redesign the content areas of study with more examples and some consolidation of topics. Full new draft language can be found under the handouts column in the table above.	If the board were to adopt these exact changes, do these changes address your concerns? Is there any specific area that you would like to see different? If so, what changes would you like to see?