Certified Nurse Assistant Renewal Requirements in California

To meet the California CNA renewal requirements, you must keep your criminal record clearance active, work for pay in a nursing role under a licensed health professional during your two-year certification period, and complete 48 hours of continuing education. You file two forms with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), there is no fee, and you can submit everything online.¹

The Three Things You Must Have Before You Can Renew

CDPH will only renew your certificate if all three of these are in place by the day it expires:¹

Criminal record clearance through CDPH. If you were fingerprinted (Live Scan) when you first certified and nothing has changed, this carries forward. You do not need to be re-fingerprinted for a standard renewal.
Compensated nursing or nursing-related work in a facility, under the supervision of a licensed health professional, during your current certification period.
48 hours of in-service training or continuing education units, completed and documented inside the two-year window.

Miss any one of these and you cannot use the standard renewal path. You will have to reactivate instead, which means retaking the Competency Evaluation exam.

How the 48 Hours of Continuing Education Have to Be Structured

The hour count is not the only rule. The timing and format catch people out.

At least 12 of the 48 hours must be completed in each year of your two-year certification period. You cannot stack the whole requirement into year two.²

Online hours are capped. No more than 24 of the 48 hours can come from a CDPH-approved online computer training program. The rest must come from in-person in-service training or other non-online approved providers.²

Only providers with a CDPH-assigned Nurse Assistant Certification (NAC) number can issue hours that count.³ If your employer runs in-service sessions at your facility, those usually count, and many CNAs pick up a substantial share of their hours this way without tracking it. Make sure each session is documented with the course title, date, and instructor signature, and keep every individual completion certificate. CDPH can audit your records, and if you cannot produce them you may have to retake courses.

The Two Forms You File

Your renewal package has two forms.

CDPH 283C, the Certified Nurse Assistant and Home Health Aide Renewal Application, collects your personal information, employment history, and your attestation that you meet the eligibility requirements.³

CDPH 283A, the In-Service Training/Continuing Education form, is your log of all 48 hours. Each line needs the provider’s name and their CDPH-assigned NAC number. If any hours were earned online, attach the online CEU certificates to this form so CDPH can validate them.²

Submitting the Application

You can submit online or by mail. CDPH prefers online, and the portal accepts the 283C, 283A, and any CEU certificates as uploads.³

For mail, send the completed and 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 a completed application to be reviewed.⁴ Contacting CDPH before that window has closed can actually push your file back, so wait it out. Once CDPH confirms your criminal record clearance and verifies your hours and work history, your updated certificate is issued.

If CDPH is in a processing backlog when your certificate expires, the department has authority under Health and Safety Code section 1338.5 to extend your expiration date by up to six months.⁵ That extension exists to cover slow processing on CDPH’s end. It does not protect you if you filed late.

What Happens If Your Certificate Lapses

If your certificate expires and you did not meet the three requirements, you cannot work as a CNA until you fix it. CDPH gives you a two-year window from the expiration date to reactivate without redoing a full training program. You can also start reactivation up to six months before your certificate expires if you already know you will fall short.⁶

Reactivation uses the same CDPH 283C form, but you check “yes” on question six in the Reactivation section. If CDPH approves the application, you will get an approval letter and instructions for scheduling the Competency Evaluation exam, which you must pass within two years of your certificate’s expiration date.⁶

Past the two-year mark, reactivation is off the table. You would need to complete a new CDPH-approved CNA training program and submit an Initial Application (CDPH 283B) with new Live Scan fingerprinting.¹

Changing Your Name or Address

Name and address changes do not go on the renewal application. File a separate Request for Name/Address Change and/or Duplicate form (CDPH 929). A name change requires 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.⁴

Address changes should be reported within 30 days. You can submit the CDPH 929 with your renewal application or on its own at any point in your certification period.

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