Pediatric Neuropsychologist Salary 2026

Pediatric neuropsychologists in 2026 typically earn $130,000 to $175,000 as hospital staff, $145,000 to $210,000 in academic medical centers (with the higher end reflecting senior faculty with research grant funding), and $175,000 to $250,000+ in established private or group practice. The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) 2023 salary survey reported a median pediatric neuropsychologist salary of $152,000 across all settings. The specialty commands a premium over adult clinical neuropsychology because of the smaller trained pool, the longer report turnaround time per case, and the heavy demand from special-education legal cases and pediatric hospital systems.

Pediatric neuropsychologists typically earn 5 to 12 percent more than adult-focused counterparts in equivalent settings, primarily reflecting the smaller workforce supply and the more time-intensive nature of pediatric evaluations. A typical adult comprehensive battery takes 6 to 8 hours of patient contact plus 4 to 6 hours of interpretation and report writing; a pediatric battery typically requires 7 to 10 hours of patient contact (children require more breaks and warm-up time), 6 to 10 hours of interpretation including normative comparison across school-aged norms, plus a parent feedback session and often a school feedback session. Per-case revenue is similar to adult work; the lower volume is offset by stronger private-pay demand and special education legal-case work.

The Houston Conference (1997, updated 2022) defines the training pathway: doctoral degree in clinical psychology with neuropsychology emphasis, an APA-accredited internship with neuropsychology rotation experience, and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship specifically in clinical neuropsychology. For pediatric subspecialization, the fellowship must include substantial pediatric clinical training (most pediatric-track fellowships sit at large pediatric hospitals like Boston Children's, CHOP, Children's National DC, Texas Children's, Lurie Children's Chicago, Children's Hospital LA, Seattle Children's, Cincinnati Children's). Board certification (ABPP-CN with pediatric proficiency demonstration) is standard for senior roles and required for many academic-medical promotion paths.

Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Children's National Washington DC, Texas Children's, Lurie Children's Chicago, Seattle Children's, and Children's Hospital LA pay the top staff-pediatric-neuropsych salaries at $150,000 to $195,000 plus academic appointment. Pediatric private practices in high-income suburbs of NYC (Westchester, Greenwich CT), Boston (Newton, Brookline), San Francisco (Palo Alto, Marin), and DC (Bethesda, McLean) routinely support $250 to $400 per testing-hour billed cash, supporting practice net of $200,000 to $325,000 for established practitioners with strong school and pediatrician referral networks. Forensic-pediatric neuropsychology (educational rights cases, birth injury litigation) commands the very top, $400 to $700 per hour for expert witness work.

School referrals (gifted assessment, learning disability evaluation, IEP documentation, twice-exceptional assessment) are the primary referral driver for most pediatric private practices outside academic medical centers. Independent education evaluations (IEE) requested by parents who disagree with school-conducted evaluations are reimbursable by the school district under IDEA at the practitioner's published rate. Most established pediatric neuropsychology practices generate 40 to 60 percent of revenue from school-funded IEE work plus parent-pay academic-rights evaluations. Hospital-employed pediatric neuropsychologists by contrast see more medical referrals (traumatic brain injury, epilepsy presurgical work-up, oncology survivorship, congenital cardiac, neurogenetic).

Pediatric neuropsychology uses the standard testing CPT family: 96132 (neuropsychological test evaluation, first hour by psychologist) and 96133 (each additional hour) for interpretation and integration; 96136 (test administration first 30 minutes by technician) and 96137 (each additional 30 minutes) for assistant-administered testing; 96146 (single computer-administered test, e.g., CPT-3); 90791 for the diagnostic intake; 90847 for a parent feedback session when billed as family therapy with the patient present. A typical pediatric comprehensive battery bills out across these codes at $1,800 to $2,800 Medicare-equivalent, with commercial payers reimbursing 110 to 140 percent of that. Cash-pay rates of $3,500 to $6,500 per comprehensive evaluation are typical in high-end private practice.