Grievance policy

APA’s Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP) is fully committed to conducting all activities in strict conformance with APA’s Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of Continuing Education for Psychologists. CEP will comply with all legal and ethical responsibilities to be non-discriminatory in promotional activities, program content, and in the treatment of program participants. The monitoring and assessment of compliance with these standards will be the responsibility of CEP in consultation with the members of the continuing education committee.

While CEP goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues which come to the attention of the staff which require intervention and/or action on the part of the staff. This procedural description serves as a guideline for handling such grievances.

1. When a participant, either orally or in written format, files a grievance and expects action on the complaint, the following actions will be taken.
   
   If the grievance concerns a speaker, the content presented by the speaker, or the style of presentation, the individual filing the grievance will be asked to put his/her comments in written format. The Continuing Education (CE) director will then pass on the comments to the speaker, assuring the confidentiality of the grieved individual.
2. If the grievance concerns a workshop offering, its content, level of presentation, or the facilities in which the workshop was offered, CE director will mediate and will be the final arbitrator. If the participant requests action, CE director will:
   
   a) attempt to move the participant to another program; or
   b) provide a credit for a subsequent year’s programming; or
   c) provide a partial or full refund of the program fee.
   
   Actions 2b and 2c will require a written note, documenting the grievance, for record keeping purposes. The note need not be signed by the grieved individual.
3. If the grievance concerns CEP, in a specific regard, the CE director will attempt to arbitrate.

Office of Continuing Education in Psychology
750 First St. NE, Washington, DC 20002–4242