How To Renew Your Illinois CNA License: A Step-By-Step Guide

If an individual that has previously been deemed competent as a CNA (Illinois approved nurse assistant training program; grandfathered in; foreign LPN/RN; military trained; nursing student; or out of state CNA), has a period of 24 consecutive months that the individual has not provided nursing or nursing-related services for pay, the approved certification is lost. Recertification may be accomplished by doing the following:

• Pass a manual skills test

• An Illinois approved evaluator must administer the manual skills test and the individual must demonstrate competency in all of the required skills.

• The individual may contact the registry for a manual skills evaluator in their area.

• The individual may contact a community college to see if the college has an approved manual skills evaluator.

• The individual may take an Illinois approved CNA training program and take the written competency test. A list of approved CNA training programs is on this Web site.

• The evaluator will complete a Manual Skills Evaluation Form and mail it to the registry.

• Once the evaluator’s form is received, the registry will verify that the individual passed the manual skills test, meets the background check requirements, and has no administrative findings before mailing a form to register for the competency test.

• Pass a written competency test.​​

• If the individual fails the competency test three times, he or she must take another Illinois approved CNA training program before taking the written test again.

For a detailed list of approved CNA training programs go to: https://hcwrpub.dph.illinois.gov/Programs.aspx​

For the CNA certification application go to:

https://dph.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idph/files/forms/nursingstudentapplication13aug2019.pdf