Certified Nurse Assistant Renewal Requirements in California

To renew your California CNA certification, you need to meet three requirements before your two-year certificate expires: keep your criminal record clearance active, work for pay in a nursing role under a licensed health professional during the certification period, and complete 48 hours of approved continuing education. You submit two forms to the California Department of Public Health, online or by mail, and there is no fee.¹

The Three Things You Must Have

All three of these must be in place by your expiration date, or you cannot renew through the standard process.¹

Criminal record clearance carries over from your initial certification. If you completed Live Scan fingerprinting when you first certified and nothing has changed, you do not need to be re-fingerprinted for a standard renewal.

Compensated work experience means you provided nursing or nursing-related services in a facility, for pay, under the supervision of a licensed health professional at some point during your current two-year period. Unpaid work does not satisfy this.

Continuing education means 48 documented hours of in-service training or CEUs completed during the same two-year window. The rules on how those hours can be structured are strict enough to deserve their own section.

How the 48 Hours of Continuing Education Must Be Structured

You cannot save all your training for the second year. A minimum of 12 hours must be completed in each year of your certification period.²

Online training is allowed but capped. No more than 24 of the 48 hours can come from a CDPH-approved online computer training program.² The rest has to come from in-person in-service training or other non-online approved providers. Every provider you use, online or in-person, needs a CDPH-assigned Nurse Assistant Certification (NAC) number for the hours to count.³

In-service training your employer runs at the facility where you work counts toward the 48 hours, and many CNAs cover a large share of the requirement this way. Make sure each session is documented with the course title, date, and instructor signature. Keep the individual completion certificates as well. CDPH can audit your records, and if you cannot produce originals, you may have to retake courses to make up the shortfall.

The Two Forms You Submit

The renewal package is built around two forms.

The CDPH 283C is the Certified Nurse Assistant Renewal Application itself. It collects your personal information, employment history, and your attestation that you meet the eligibility requirements.³

The CDPH 283A is your training log. Each entry lists the provider’s name and their CDPH-assigned NAC number. If any of your hours came from online courses, attach the online CEU certificates to this form for validation.²

Submitting Your Application

Submit online or by mail. Online is faster, and the portal accepts the 283C, the 283A, and any CEU certificates as file uploads.³ If you mail it, send the signed forms to:

California Department of Public Health
Healthcare Workforce Branch (HWB)
P.O. Box 997416, MS 3301
Sacramento, CA 95899-7416

There is no processing fee.¹

How Long Processing Takes

Allow up to 30 business days for CDPH to review a completed application.⁴ Contacting CDPH before that window has passed can actually add to the delay, so hold off on follow-ups until after 30 business days. Once your requirements and criminal record clearance are verified, you will receive your updated certificate.

If CDPH is running behind and the backlog is on their end, the department has authority to extend your expiration date by up to six months.⁵ That protection is meant for slow processing, not for a late application on your side.

If You Miss the Deadline

Once your certificate expires, you cannot work as a CNA in California until you fix your status. What you do next depends on how long it has been.

Within two years of the expiration date, you can reactivate rather than start over. You submit the same CDPH 283C form, but you check “yes” for question six in the Reactivation section. You can also start reactivation up to six months before your certificate expires if you already know you will not meet the standard requirements.⁶ If CDPH approves the application, you will get an approval letter and instructions for scheduling the Competency Evaluation exam, which has a written portion and a clinical skills portion. You must pass the exam within two years of your expiration date.

More than two years past expiration, reactivation is no longer available. You must complete a new CDPH-approved CNA training program (at least 60 hours of classroom instruction and 100 hours of supervised clinical practice), submit a new Initial Application (CDPH 283B) with Live Scan fingerprinting, and pass the Competency Evaluation before CDPH will issue a new certificate.⁷¹

Name or Address Changes

Do not handle name or address changes through the renewal application. They go on a separate form, the Request for Name/Address Change and/or Duplicate (CDPH 929). A name change needs a legal document such as a birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport, or court order; a driver’s license or Social Security card is not accepted. Address changes should be reported within 30 days. You can submit the 929 alongside your renewal or at any point during your certification period.⁴

1
California Department of Public Health. CNA FAQ – Renewal
2
California Department of Public Health. CDPH 283A – Certified Nurse Assistant In-Service Training and Continuing Education Units
3
California Department of Public Health. CDPH 283C – Certified Nurse Assistant and Home Health Aide Renewal Application
4
California Department of Public Health. Certified Nurse Assistant
5
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 1338.5
6
California Department of Public Health. CNA FAQ – Reactivation
7
Justia Law. California Health and Safety Code 1337-1338.5