1. (a) Scope and Purpose.

   1. (1) Before performing evaluations, testing and assessments, licensees clearly define the purposes and scope to the subject(s) of the evaluations, testing and/or assessments.
   2. (2) Licensees produce reports consistent with and which clearly state the purpose and scope of the evaluations, testing and/or assessments.

2. (b) Reliability and Validity.

   1. (1) Licensees produce or co-sign only assessments, recommendations, reports or psychological diagnostic or evaluative statements that are based on information and techniques sufficient to provide appropriate substantiation for the findings.
   2. (2) Licensees administer, score, interpret or use assessment techniques or tests only if they are familiar with the reliability, validation and related standardization or outcome studies of, and proper applications and use of, the techniques they use.
   3. (3) Licensees who administer, score, interpret or utilize psychological assessment techniques, tests or instruments do so in a manner and for purposes for which there are professional or scientific bases.
   4. (4) Licensees do not base their assessment or intervention decisions or recommendations on data or test results that are outdated for the current purpose.
   5. (5) Licensees do not base decisions or recommendations on tests and measures that are obsolete or not useful for the current purpose.

3. (c) Limitations.

   1. (1) Licensees include all information that provides the basis for their findings in any report in which they make findings or diagnoses about an individual.
   2. (2) Licensees identify limits to the certainty with which diagnoses, judgments, or predictions can be made about individuals.
   3. (3) Licensees identify various test factors and characteristics of the person being assessed that might affect their professional judgment or reduce the accuracy of their interpretations when interpreting assessment results, including automated interpretations.
   4. (4) Licensees include any significant reservations they have about the accuracy or limitations of their interpretations or findings in any report they produce.
   5. (5) Licensees provide opinions of the psychological characteristics of individuals only after they have conducted an examination of the individuals adequate to support their statements or conclusions. When such an examination is not practical, licensees document the efforts they made to obtain such an examination and clarify the probable impact of their limited information to the reliability and validity of their conclusions.
4. (d) Test Security and Validity. Licensees conduct testing and maintain and release test protocols and data in a secure manner that does not compromise the validity of the test.

Source Note:The provisions of this §465.16 adopted to be effective June 3, 1999, 24 TexReg 4017; amended to be effective March 13, 2000, 25 TexReg 2061; amended to be effective December 10, 2002, 27 TexReg 11545.