California psychologists: your 36 hours, and where a course without CE approval fits.

What the California Board of Psychology asks

36 hours every two years. Unless an exemption under the Board's rules applies, California requires 36 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) in the preceding two years for license renewal. The 36 include at least 4 hours in laws and ethics and at least 4 hours in cultural diversity and/or social justice. Except when ABPP board certification satisfies 100% of the CPD requirement, you must earn hours from at least two of the four CPD categories: Professional Activities, Academic, Sponsored Continuing Education, and ABPP board certification. No activity may be claimed in more than one category.

Self-Directed Learning, up to 6 hours. The regulation defines Self-Directed Learning as "independent educational activities focused on maintaining, developing, or increasing conceptual and applied competencies that are relevant to psychological practice, education, or science, such as reading books or peer-reviewed journal articles, watching videos or webcasts, listening to podcasts, attending a webinar that is not sponsor-approved for CE credit, …" It is part of the Academic category, and "a maximum of six (6) hours shall be credited in 'Self-Directed Learning'."

Your own record. For Self-Directed Learning, you keep the record yourself: "date(s), medium (e.g. webinar), topic or title, and total number of hours." Keep proof of compliance for four years from the effective date of the renewal, and send it to the Board if asked. Failing to provide documentation when the Board requests it is unprofessional conduct.

Sponsored CE is different. Sponsored continuing education, up to 27 hours, must be approved by an organization the Board recognizes. The Board does not approve CE providers. Special Learning holds no such approval for this course.

One-time training requirements. California also requires one-time training in suicide risk assessment and intervention (at least six hours) and in child abuse assessment and reporting. The child abuse training must have at least seven contact hours and come from a source listed in Business and Professions Code §2915.2.

Read the Board's own pages before you plan your hours: Continuing professional development FAQs · 2026 Laws and Regulations (16 CCR §§1397.60.1 and 1397.61.1)

Does this mandated reporting course from Special Learning count toward my California CPD hours?

It can be logged as Self-Directed Learning, which the regulation says includes watching videos or webcasts and webinars that are not sponsor-approved for CE credit, if it is relevant to your psychological practice. Self-Directed Learning is capped at 6 of your 36 hours, and you keep your own record of the date, medium, title and hours. Special Learning awards no CE credit for this course, and it does not count as Sponsored Continuing Education. It does not meet California's one-time child abuse assessment and reporting requirement, which needs at least seven contact hours from a source listed in Business and Professions Code §2915.2. We make no claim that it counts toward your laws and ethics or cultural diversity hours. Compassionate Mandated Reporting Across Disciplines runs 110 minutes and issues a Special Learning certificate of completion showing your name, the course title, the dates and 1.83 hours of course duration, which you can keep with your record.

A course for psychologists: mandated reporting

The recorded course costs $39, paid once, with a downloadable slide deck and a certificate of completion after you pass its quiz. The recording runs 110 minutes; the certificate records 1.83 hours. Special Learning does not award CE credit for this course. In California it fits only as Self-Directed Learning, within the 6-hour limit; read the explanation above before logging it.

Mandated reporting

Compassionate Mandated Reporting Across Disciplines

Deborah P. Coehlo, Manya Ralkowski and Iris Maynard use school and adult protective-services cases to cover recognizing suspected abuse and neglect, responding to a disclosure, sharing what you observed rather than investigating, what intake workers ask for, and preparing for a difficult conversation with a family. 110 minutes. Historical material with examples from Oregon and Colorado; it does not replace any mandated reporter training your state or employer requires.

See the course, $39

Other professions

Speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, counselors, school psychologists, and Texas social workers and psychologists: find your profession's course and board rule. Questions about a course? Contact us.