Certified Nurse Aide · rules checked October 22, 2026
Your certificate and active listing expire 24 months after issuance/listing or 24 months after your last date of verified employment, whichever is earlier (26 TAC 556.9). To renew, paid nursing or nursing-related services must be documented on HHSC Form 5506-NAR through TULIP — filed by the nursing facility, or by you if the facility does not file — and you must complete 24 hours of in-service education every two years plus an HHSC infection-control and PPE course every year. The Texas rule does not set a minimum number of paid work hours; secondary summaries that claim an 8-hour Texas minimum were not supported by the TAC text retrieved.
If you have never worked for pay since certifying, use your certification date.
| Credential | Certified Nurse Aide |
|---|---|
| Registry | Texas Nurse Aide Registry · 512-438-2050 |
| Training required | 100 hours |
| Exam | Prometric — $125 (written $33 · skills $92) |
| How renewal works | Stays active through paid work inside the window — no calendar expiry while you keep working. Renewal fee: $0. |
| Keep-active work rule | Your certificate and active listing expire 24 months after issuance/listing or 24 months after your last date of verified employment, whichever is earlier (26 TAC 556.9). To renew, paid nursing or nursing-related services must be documented on HHSC Form 5506-NAR through TULIP — filed by the nursing facility, or by you if the facility does not file — and you must complete 24 hours of in-service education every two years plus an HHSC infection-control and PPE course every year. The Texas rule does not set a minimum number of paid work hours; secondary summaries that claim an 8-hour Texas minimum were not supported by the TAC text retrieved. |
| Continuing education | At least 24 hours of in-service education every two years, including geriatrics and care of residents with dementia disorders including Alzheimer's disease, from a nursing facility, an approved NATCEP, HHSC, or (for no more than 12 of the hours) another HHSC/DSHS/Board of Nursing licensed or certified health care entity; plus an annual HHSC course in infection control and proper use of PPE (26 TAC 556.9(e)(3)-(5)). |
| Who reports your work | You or your employer |
Changing soon: Prometric pricing effective September 1, 2026: $125 for written+skills or oral+skills ($33 written/oral alone, $92 skills alone), per Prometric's Texas nurse aide page retrieved in this pass.
Portal, forms, the steps in order, the exact fee, and the trap that lapses Texas aides — our guide How to renew your CNA license in Texas walks the renewal end to end.
Texas allows renewal even after expiration if you can document qualifying employment and the 24 hours of in-service education for each two-year period since the certificate was last active, filing Form 5506-NAR through TULIP.
If you cannot document that employment history, you must retake and pass the Prometric competency exam (written/oral and skills); depending on how long you have been inactive, HHSC may also require completing a new NATCEP training program before testing.
HHSC charges no fee to issue or renew the certificate (26 TAC 556.9(c)) — the money trap in Texas is the 24 hours of in-service education, which aides often discover only at renewal. A substantiated finding on the Employee Misconduct Registry has no reinstatement path; only administrative-error listings can be petitioned for correction through TULIP.
Application fee: $0. Must be active and in good standing on another state's registry. File Form 5505-NAR (Request for Entry on the Texas Nurse Aide Registry Through Reciprocity) with a government ID, Social Security card copy, and Texas DPS criminal history results for every legal last name you have used; HHSC also screens the Employee Misconduct Registry. Work-history requirement: If your out-of-state certificate has no expiration date, you must also file Form 5506-NAR employment verification completed by your most recent employer.. No HHSC endorsement fee. Military route confirmed: HB 5629 (89th Legislature, effective September 1, 2025) requires agencies to act on military service member, veteran, and military spouse license applications within 10 business days, waives state application and examination fees for those applicants, and replaces the old 'substantially equivalent' standard with a 'similar scope of practice' standard — it applies to nurse aide endorsement applicants in those categories through Occupations Code Chapter 55.
The table below is computed for an active aide in good standing, trained to the origin state's standard hours. Your own hours or status can change your row — run the transfer checker with your real facts.
| Certified in | Verdict for Texas | Fee | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Alaska | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Arizona | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Arkansas | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| California | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Colorado | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Connecticut | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Delaware | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| District of Columbia | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Florida | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Georgia | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Hawaii | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Idaho | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Illinois | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Indiana | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Iowa | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Kansas | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Kentucky | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Louisiana | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Maine | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Maryland | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Massachusetts | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Michigan | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Minnesota | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Mississippi | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Missouri | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Montana | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Nebraska | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Nevada | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| New Hampshire | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| New Jersey | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| New Mexico | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| New York | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| North Carolina | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| North Dakota | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Ohio | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Oklahoma | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Oregon | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Pennsylvania | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Rhode Island | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| South Carolina | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| South Dakota | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Tennessee | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Texas | Same state — no transfer needed | ||
| Utah | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Vermont | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Virginia | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Washington | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| West Virginia | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Wisconsin | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
| Wyoming | Accepted — with conditions | $0 | Texas accepts active certifications with a work-history requirement. |
The kit carries Texas's full recovery path — the forms, the order to file them, the phone scripts — plus transfer checklists for every destination. See the kit →
