APA’s Council of Representatives approved the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) revised Standards of Accreditation for Health Service Psychology (SoA) in February of 2026. The new SoA will go into effect immediately. Below is a summary of pertinent changes made.
Doctoral programs
- Programs must demonstrate training in discipline-specific knowledge and profession-wide competencies includes integrative in-depth education in the underlying assumptions and philosophies of the theories and methods of science and practice.
- Programs need to prepare students for internship training and document that students are prepared for entry-level practice by the time of graduation.
Internship programs
- The revision provides a definition of supervision.
- Expectations for a sufficient number of interns in programs were revised.
Postdoctoral residency programs
- The revision clarifies language regarding accreditation of programs in traditional and specialty practice areas.
- The revision clarifies expectations for program climate and faculty/staff and resident interactions.
- The revision defines individual and group supervision.
- The CoA has developed standards regarding feedback to residents as well as administrative and program leadership structure.
- The revision clarifies required supervisor credentials based on program type/location.
- Programs must publicly disclose their use of distance education technologies and provide informative communication with prospective/current residents.
The CoA will update related Implementing Regulations as necessary to maintain compliance with the revised SoA.
Please contact the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation with any questions you may have regarding the transition process.