Florida Nursing License Renewal: CE, Fees, and Deadlines

Florida nursing license renewal runs on a two-year cycle, and the deadline depends on your license type and, for RNs and CNAs, which renewal group you were assigned to. To renew, you log in to the state’s MQA Online Services portal, confirm your continuing education is recorded in CE Broker, answer the background questions, and pay the fee. Practicing on an expired license is a third-degree felony under Florida law, so the deadline is firm.¹

When Your License Expires

The Florida Board of Nursing staggers deadlines across license types, and in some cases across groups within a type. Your license card and your MQA online profile both show your group.

Registered Nurses

RNs fall into one of three biennial groups:

Group 1: expires April 30, 2026
Group 2: expires July 31, 2026
Group 3: expires April 30, 2027

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses follow the same group schedule as the RN license they hold.²

Licensed Practical Nurses

LPNs share a single expiration date. The current cycle expires July 31, 2025, with the next renewal due July 31, 2027.³

Certified Nursing Assistants

CNAs renew biennially in two groups. Group 1 expires May 31, 2025, and Group 2 expires May 31, 2026. CNAs also need to have performed nursing-related services for compensation within the previous 24 months to stay on the registry.⁴

Continuing Education You Have to Complete

CE is the substantive hurdle in every renewal. The requirements split by license type.

RNs and LPNs

Twenty-four hours of approved continuing education per biennium. Within that total, three courses are mandatory every cycle:

Prevention of Medical Errors, 2 hours, board-approved course required
Florida Laws and Rules, 2 hours, board-approved course required
Human Trafficking, 2 hours, which does not have to be a Florida Board of Nursing-approved course but must meet the criteria in Section 464.013

Two more topics rotate in. Recognition of Impairment in the Workplace, 2 hours, is required every other renewal cycle. Domestic Violence, 2 hours, is required every third biennium, and those hours sit on top of the standard 24 rather than inside them.⁵

Before your first renewal, you also need a one-time 1-hour HIV/AIDS course. If your initial license was not issued for a full two-year period, the board requires 1 hour of CE for each month you held the license instead of the full 24.

The remaining hours after the mandatory topics are filled with general electives from a state or national organization accredited to provide nursing continuing education.

APRNs

APRNs carry the same core topics as RNs and add clinical education on top. The breakdown per biennium:

16 general hours from an accredited nursing CE provider
10 hours of Nurse Practitioner-level courses from a professional or national nursing specialty board listed in FAC 64B9-4.002(2)
Prevention of Medical Errors, 2 hours
Florida Laws and Rules, 2 hours
Human Trafficking, 2 hours
Safe and Effective Prescription of Controlled Substances, 3 hours every biennium, from specific accredited providers such as ANCC, AANA, or AANP
Recognition of Impairment in the Workplace, 2 hours every other renewal
Domestic Violence, 2 hours every third biennium, in addition to the 24-hour total

Autonomous APRNs add 10 more hours of approved graduate-level Nurse Practitioner or continuing medical education coursework.⁵

CNAs

CNAs complete 24 hours of in-service training each biennium rather than traditional CE. Required areas include bloodborne pathogens and infection control, domestic violence, medical record documentation, resident rights, communication with cognitively impaired clients, CPR skills, and medical error prevention.⁴

Certification Exemption

Nurses who hold a current specialty certification from a program accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies or the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification are exempt from the general CE requirements. The exemption does not cover the Human Trafficking course or, for APRNs, the Safe and Effective Prescription of Controlled Substances course. Those remain mandatory.⁶

Confirming Your CE in CE Broker

Florida uses CE Broker as its official electronic tracking system. When you submit a renewal, the Department of Health automatically checks your CE Broker records. Full compliance lets the renewal process through without interruption. Gaps trigger a prompt to enter your remaining hours before you can proceed.⁷

Every Florida nurse gets a free Basic account that covers all reporting requirements. You can view your course history, see which courses providers have reported, and self-report anything missing. A paid Professional account adds a dynamic compliance transcript, but it is optional.

Log in a few weeks before your deadline rather than on renewal day. Provider-reported courses can take a few days to appear, and finding a gap at the last minute leaves little time to fix it.

What Renewal Costs

Fees depend on license type, status, and whether you renew before or after expiration. Renewing late costs significantly more.

CNAs

Active to Active, before expiration: $55
Active to Active, after expiration: $105
120-day Notified Delinquent, Active to Active: $160⁴

RNs

Representative RN fees for renewals after expiration include $130 to stay active, $120 to remain inactive, and $240 to reactivate from inactive to active. Delinquent renewals within the 120-day notice period run from $185 to $260 depending on status. All RN fees include a $5 unlicensed-activity fee and a $5 Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness fee. Nurses first licensed before 2013 may see an additional $24 background screening charge.²

Autonomous APRNs

Active to Active, before expiration: $60
Active to Active, after expiration: $115
120-day Notified Delinquent, Active to Active: $175

APRNs who also dispense medications pay an additional $100 dispensing registration fee on top of the renewal amount.⁸

The full fee schedule for each license type sits on the Florida Board of Nursing website under the renewal page for your specific license. Check there for the exact amount before submitting, because fees can change between cycles.

Submitting the Renewal Through MQA

All renewals go through the Florida MQA Online Services portal. The steps:

Log in to your MQA account. If you hold multiple health-related licenses, they share one account.
Verify your mailing address, email, and contact details. Renewal notices and your hard-copy license go to the address on file.
Answer the background disclosure questions about criminal history, malpractice actions, and disciplinary proceedings. Florida Statute 456.0635 requires truthful disclosure, and false information is grounds for denial or discipline.⁹
Pay the fee by credit or debit card.

After payment, the system generates a confirmation screen and emails a receipt. Keep that receipt as proof of licensure until the updated license card arrives. The Board of Nursing typically updates the public Practitioner Profile database within a couple of days, and a hard-copy card usually arrives in the mail within a few weeks.

If You Miss the Deadline

Once your expiration date passes at midnight Eastern time, your license moves to delinquent status. You cannot practice while delinquent. Returning to active status requires completing all CE for both the current and the previous biennium, paying the regular renewal fee plus the delinquent surcharge, and submitting through MQA. Delinquent fees can run two to three times the standard cost.²

If you take no action for two full years after your expiration date, the license becomes null and void. At that point it cannot be reactivated, and you would need to reapply from scratch and meet all current requirements as a new applicant.²

Alternatives If You Are Not Practicing

You can switch to inactive status at renewal for a lower fee than active renewal. While inactive you cannot practice in Florida, but your license stays current and does not go delinquent. Reactivating later takes the applicable reactivation fee and any outstanding CE. If you stay inactive for more than two consecutive biennial cycles (four years), the Board may require you to demonstrate competency before reactivating, potentially through a special examination or additional requirements.²

Retired status is also available at renewal, with its own fee lower than active renewal, and you can switch into it from either active or inactive. A separate retired volunteer nurse certificate exists for nurses who want to provide limited care to underserved populations; it requires at least 10 years of prior licensure, restricts practice to board-approved nonprofit or public-agency settings, prohibits prescribing controlled substances, and bars the nurse from receiving compensation.¹⁰

Two Situations That Change the Picture

If you hold a Florida multistate license under the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact and you move to another compact state, you have 60 days from the move to apply for licensure in your new home state. A nurse can only hold one multistate license at a time, always through the state of residence, so your Florida multistate license will no longer be valid once the new state issues yours. Moving to a non-compact state ends your Florida multistate privileges and requires a single-state license in the new state.¹¹

Active-duty U.S. Armed Forces members who held a Florida nursing license in good standing when they entered service stay in good standing without renewing, paying fees, or completing CE for the full duration of active duty plus six months after discharge, as long as they are not practicing nursing in the private sector for profit during that time. Florida law also requires the Board to adopt rules exempting military spouses from renewal requirements when they are absent from the state due to their spouse’s military duties.¹²

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code Chapter 464 – Nursing
2
Florida Board of Nursing. Registered Nurse (RN) Renewal
3
Florida Board of Nursing. Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) Renewal
4
Florida Board of Nursing. Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Renewal
5
Florida Board of Nursing. Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Renewal
6
Florida Board of Nursing. Continuing Education AAPRN
7
Florida Board of Nursing. Continuing Education – CE/CEU
8
Florida Board of Nursing. Renewing Fees
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 456 – Section 456.0635
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 464 – Section 464.0205
11
Nurse Licensure Compact. Frequently Asked Questions
12
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 456 – Section 456.024