Illinois School Psychology Internship Consortium - Update
ourchildr...@doc-b.org
Dear Colleagues:
On July 25, 2025, ISPIC’s appeal was heard by a review panel which upheld the Commission on Accreditation’s decision made in July, 2024, to voluntarily withdraw ISPIC from accreditation. In other words, the panel determined that the self-study would not have been submitted on time regardless of any actions on APA’s part. The responsibility for timely completion of the self-study is squarely on the internship program. As a result, as of August 24, 2025, ISPIC is officially no longer accredited.
What does this mean for trainees?
Just as the 350+ program completers before them, both the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 cohorts (total of 26) completed an accredited program. The 2025-2026 cohort of 8 interns are currently interning in an unaccredited program that has been approved for a site visit in Spring of 2026 (The self-study was submitted in November, 2024, and the program was approved for a site visit in April, 2025). If the site visit is successful, ISPIC will once again be accredited, and this cohort will graduate from an accredited program. Any of you who want to be involved in our site visit, please contact me at bhu...@thechicagoschool.edu or connect with me at the ISPIC get together at NASP.
To be clear, the decision of the hearing panel is in no way a reflection on the quality of training or the program’s continued capacity and commitment to meet APA or licensure criteria and train school psychologists consistent with the Profession-Wide Competencies and NASP Practice Model. It is entirely due to the failure to turn the self-study in on time.
That said, the ISPIC Governing Board, comprised of representatives from the four sponsoring universities (Loyola University Chicago, Illinois State University, Northern Illinois University, and The Chicago School) and our Partnering Sites, has been engaging in a critical review of events leading up to the withdrawal. Going into 2025-2026, we have added multiple new layers of structure and support for the new Training Director, as well as formalizing roles and responsibilities for others in leadership, tightening up some of our practices, and creating additional mechanisms to evaluate the actions we are taking.
We simply cannot say enough about our current interns hailing from Indiana State, Indiana University-Bloomington, Illinois State University, Loyola University-Chicago, The Chicago School, University of Arizona, and University of Buffalo! They are an engaged and impressive group! As we head into recruitment season, they are ready and willing to share their experiences with your students who may be nervous about applying before ISPIC is officially accredited again. We are recruiting for 12 positions; our website is updated and we are creating a clone website at The Chicago School which we will migrate over to once recruitment efforts are complete.
We are off to a wonderful start to the school year led by our new Internship Training Director, Dr. Gina Bartucci-Andriusu, who is also a former ISPIC intern, and on the campus of our new host institution, The Chicago School! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or feedback.
Warmly,
Brenda J. Huber, PhD, ABPP (Dept Chair, The Chicago School)