School of Education

Internships during the last seven years for the Ph.D. program in School Psychology:

Doctoral students may elect to complete internships in APA-accredited internship programs, non-accredited APPIC internships, or non-accredited internships in public schools. Most often, students who seek APA-accredited or non-accredited APPIC internships are interested in becoming licensed for the independent practice of psychology. Students who are not interested in licensing select internships in non-accredited public school settings that lead to licensure/certification as a school psychologist by state departments of education. Students who complete an APA-accredited internship or a non-accredited APPIC internship will meet the internship requirement for licensing as a psychologist for independent practice. In general, students who complete an internship in a non-accredited public or private school setting will not meet the internship requirements for licensing. All graduates are eligible for licensing/certification as a school psychologist by state departments of education and as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Thus, all students must complete an internship, but their career goals and other factors influence which internship option they seek. The internship must be at least 1500 clock hours. APA-accredited or APPIC internships are 12 months and 2000 hours.

These data show that our students have a nearly 100% success rate in obtaining internships. It should be noted that approximately half of our students seek and obtain APA-accredited internships, while the remainder seek non-APA accredited internships, most often in public schools. The primary reasons students seek internships in public schools or other non-accredited sites are due to career goals of working in public schools and geographic and personal considerations. For those students seeking APA-accredited internships, the success rate is 86% over the last seven (7) years, which can be seen in the table below. The 2012-2013 year was atypical, given that we had a 100% success rate prior to that time.