Renewal · California
Renewing a California vocational nursing licence
30 contact hours of continuing education every 2 years, and the cheapest compliant way to get them costs about $39. That is roughly $1 an hour to protect a licence worth $79,750 a year.
30
Contact hours
Every 2 years
$39
Cheapest compliant route
Unlimited annual membership
Waived
At your first renewal
82,850
California nurses doing this
About 41,425 renew each year
The requirement
30 hours, every 2 years
California licenses vocational nurses through the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians. To renew an active licence you must certify that you completed 30 contact hours in the 24 months before renewal.
Your first renewal is different. The requirement begins after your first renewal, so a newly licensed vocational nurse does not need hours for the first cycle.
What counts
- Courses must relate to your own scope of practice
- The provider must be board-approved; check before you pay, not after
If you do not do it
You can still renew, but the licence renews as current-inactive, which means you may not practise on it until the hours are done and the status is corrected.
Keeping the paperwork
Keep the provider certificate for four years. The board audits, and it asks the licensee rather than the provider.
The board is the authority
Fees, forms and deadlines change. Confirm anything that matters at Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians. This page was last checked in August 2026.
Where to get the hours
What the providers charge
Continuing education for nurses is a commodity. The courses are similar, the certificates are equally valid, and the price difference between the cheapest and the dearest is about $46 for the same obligation. Ordered by price, cheapest first.
Before you pay: check the provider is accepted by the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians. An unapproved course is money spent on nothing, and the board asks you for the certificate, not the provider.
| Provider | Price | What you get | Our note |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEUfast → | $39 a year | Unlimited annual membership | The cheapest unlimited option of the four. Interface is dated; the courses count, which is what you are buying. |
| Elite Learning → | $39 to $99 | State bundle or unlimited membership | Sells a bundle built for one state's requirement, which removes the guesswork about what counts. The unlimited membership is worth it only if you take more than a bundle's worth. |
| NetCE → | $85 a year | Unlimited annual membership | More expensive and better regarded for course quality. Worth the difference if you intend to actually learn something rather than clear a requirement. |
Prices are list prices checked in August 2026 and move. This ordering is by price and nothing else; where an affiliate arrangement exists it is disclosed on our disclosure page and it does not change what appears here or in what order.
Worth knowing
Two things people get wrong
Leaving it to the last fortnight. The hours have to be completed before you certify, not before the licence lapses, and a provider’s certificate can take a day or two to arrive. Nurses who do 30 hours in a weekend generally do them twice, because they retain none of it and the audit letter arrives anyway.
Assuming an employer’s in-service counts. Sometimes it does, often it does not, and the deciding factor is whether the provider is board-approved rather than whether the content was useful. Ask before you rely on it.
Renewing in California: common questions
- How many continuing education hours does California require to renew an LVN licence?
- 30 contact hours every 2 years, completed in the 24 months before you renew rather than at any point in your career. The requirement is set by the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians, and this page was last checked against the board in August 2026.
- Do I need continuing education for my first renewal?
- No. The requirement begins after your first renewal, so a newly licensed vocational nurse does not need hours for the first cycle.
- What happens if I do not complete the hours?
- You can still renew, but the licence renews as current-inactive, which means you may not practise on it until the hours are done and the status is corrected. The hours have to be finished before you certify, not before the licence lapses, and a provider's certificate can take a day or two to arrive.
- What does the continuing education cost?
- About $39 for the cheapest compliant route, an unlimited annual membership, rising to $85 for the dearest of the providers listed above. That is roughly $1 an hour to protect a licence paying $79,750 a year in California.
- How long do I have to keep the certificates?
- Keep the provider certificate for four years. The board audits, and it asks the licensee rather than the provider. Check the provider is accepted by the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians before you pay: an unapproved course is money spent on nothing, and the board asks you for the certificate rather than asking the provider.