Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Requirements
This domain tests the continuing professional development obligation: how many hours, what content qualifies, how it is documented, what happens on audit, and how CPD interacts with renewal, inactive status, and reactivation.
The core obligation
- Colorado psychologists meet a biennial CPD requirement tied to the renewal cycle and report it by attestation at renewal; the Board's rule sets the total and the required ethics component, so confirm the current split in 3 CCR 721-1 before relying on a number.
- Hours must be germane to the practice of psychology: assessment, treatment, supervision, ethics, law, research methods, cultural competence, and practice management are typical.
- A new licensee's first renewal is generally prorated; check the rule rather than assuming a full cycle requirement.
What counts and what does not
- Formal continuing education: conference sessions, workshops, academic courses, and structured online programs with defined instructional hours.
- Teaching or presenting a qualifying program may earn credit, typically once per program and often for preparation plus delivery.
- Routine clinical work, supervision of your own cases, and non-psychology business content generally do not count; self-study or home-study hours are usually capped.
Documentation and audit
- Keep the certificate or transcript showing sponsor, title, date, hours, and your name, and retain records for the period the rule specifies.
- The Board audits a sample of renewals. Unverified hours are treated as unmet hours, and a false attestation is itself a disciplinary matter.
- Shortfalls can sometimes be cured after the fact, but only if the Board permits it; assume you must be able to prove the hours at renewal.
Worked example
A licensee renews with 42 hours: 4 in ethics and 12 in "practice-building" webinars run by a marketing company. The ethics minimum is unmet, and the marketing hours are not germane to psychology practice, leaving 30 countable hours. She must add ethics and psychology-specific hours with documentation before she can truthfully attest; submitting the original count risks an audit finding and a misrepresentation allegation.
Traps
- Double-counting one conference across two cycles or one course against two requirements.
- Counting supervised clinical hours as CPD.
- Assuming a vendor's "CE approved" badge means the content is germane to psychology.
- Assuming CPD is waived because the license was inactive or was reactivated.