Guide · California renewal walkthrough · checked October 22, 2026

How to renew your CNA license in California

California runs a hybrid renewal system: Certificate expires every 2 years on your birthday. To renew (CDPH 283C) you must self-report paid nursing or nursing-related services in a facility, for pay, under the supervision of a licensed health professional during the certification period (at least 8 hours documented on the renewal), maintain criminal record clearance, and complete 48 hours of CDPH-approved in-service training / CE - at least 12 hours in each year, up to 24 of the 48 may be online. No CDPH renewal fee.

Where it happens

CDPH — forms 283C (renewal) and 283A (in-service record), verified on the CDPH certificate search — registry: California Nurse Assistant Registry (California Department of Public Health, CDPH) · (916) 327-2445.

The steps, in order

  1. Know your date: your certificate expires on your birthday, every 2 years. Put it in your phone the day you are certified.
  2. Work the requirement: paid nursing or nursing-related services in a facility, for pay, under the supervision of a licensed health professional, during the certification period — at least 8 hours documented on the renewal.
  3. Complete 48 hours of CDPH-approved in-service training / CE per 2 years — at least 12 hours in each year, up to 24 of the 48 online — and record them on CDPH 283A.
  4. File the renewal on CDPH 283C before your birthday expiry, reporting your own work under penalty of perjury and confirming your criminal record clearance is maintained. You file this — no employer does it for you.
  5. Verify your new date on the CDPH certificate verification search, using your name exactly as printed on your certificate — the search matches names exactly.

The fee

CDPH charges no renewal fee. The real cost of California renewal is the 48 hours of CE — the heaviest CE burden in the country.

The California trap

You are the filing system. If the 283C never goes in, you expire on your birthday even if you worked full-time — and an expired California certificate returns no result at all in the public search, so an employer sees nothing, not “expired.” Missed it by 2 years or less? The same form's reactivation section plus a passed competency exam brings you back without retraining — you can even start reactivation up to 6 months before expiry. Past 2 years, the training program comes back.

Not sure where you stand?

Renewal instructions assume you're still inside the window. If you're not sure you are, run the status checker with your real dates first — it computes active, at-risk, or lapsed and names your cheapest route back. Your state's full rule table, lapse tiers, and transfer-in verdicts live on the California state page. The general mechanics behind every state's renewal are in CNA renewal, explained plainly.

Procedure summarized from the registry and state pages in our dataset, checked October 22, 2026. The registry's own page is the authority — confirm there before a deadline that matters.