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California Psychology Internship Council to sunset after decades of halftime internships
Summary
The California Psychology Internship Council (KPIC) told the Board of Psychology it will wind down operations after a long decline in placements; board staff was told KPIC will maintain a website and post records for placements through 2010 onward.
Dr. Melody Schafer, chair of the California Psychology Internship Council (KPIC), told the California Board of Psychology on Aug. 22 that KPIC plans to sunset its match-based internship program because applications and placements have dwindled.
Schafer said KPIC — founded in 1991 and recognized by the Board of Psychology in 2001 — facilitated halftime and other local internship placements and later managed postdoctoral fellowships supported in part by state Mental Health Services Act stipend funding. “We’ve celebrated now 34 years of service and training and advocacy,” Schafer told the board.
KPIC’s presentation traced the program’s history and the policy and funding changes that contributed to a long-term decline in placements. Schafer said KPIC placed more than 12,000 doctoral students in about 275 agencies and provided roughly $8 million in stipend funds between 2008 and the program’s later years. She said KPIC’s peak internship capacity reached roughly 800 slots statewide between about 2002 and 2006, but placements have fallen since then as graduate programs increasingly prioritize APA‑accredited internships and as many community-based sites lack resources to pursue APA accreditation.
Schafer said KPIC placed 21 students last year and only six students in the coming year because the council chose to serve students already in an existing halftime sequence rather than accept new applicants. She said the last KPIC internship year will end in 2026 and that KPIC will maintain a website and a post office box for verification requests in the near term. Schafer asked the board to note that reliable electronic records exist from about 2010 forward; earlier paper records were moved between offices and are incomplete.
Board members thanked Schafer and asked whether the board’s newsletter and CPA publications could help alert former trainees about how to obtain verification of KPIC internship placements. The board and staff encouraged Schafer to submit an article and to coordinate with the board’s communications staff; board staff said they would post KPIC records that have been uploaded.
The board held no vote on KPIC’s sunset; the presentation was informational. Schafer repeatedly framed the decision as driven by declining demand from doctoral applicants and by accreditation and funding dynamics that disadvantaged community-based and halftime sites.
Looking ahead, board staff said license applicants seeking verification of a KPIC placement should consult the board’s website for records from 2010 onward and seek verification from their academic program when necessary. KPIC said it will retain a post office box and keep website records for several years to support verification requests.
