Texas
Becoming a licensed vocational nurse in Texas
Texas is the other vocational nursing state, and it is good at it. Its programs passed 91.89% of first-time candidates in 2025 against a national average of 86.59 per cent, with 26 programs passing every candidate they sent.
84
Approved programs
91.89%
Pass rate, 2025
4,180 candidates
$62,240
Median pay
10th to 90th: $48,910 to $76,140
57,560
Working in the state
How the board grades programs
Ninety per cent up, eighty per cent down
The Texas Board of Nursing commends any program at 90 per cent or above and requires a self-study report from any program below 80. In 2025, 61 of 84 programs cleared the commendation line and 8 fell under the self-study line. That is an unusually blunt public signal, and it is worth using.
Texas does not publish tuition centrally the way California does, so cost has to come from the school. Ask for total cost of attendance in writing before you enrol, and compare it against the $5,000 to $34,284 range California programs report for the same licence.
Programs sitting 20 or more candidates
The strongest records in the state
Ranked by 2025 first-time pass rate, with a floor of 20 candidates.
| Program | City | Candidates | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alvin Community College | Alvin | 20 | 100% |
| Blinn College | Brenham | 50 | 100% |
| Edwin’s Healthcare Institute | Stafford | 21 | 100% |
| Navarro College | Mexia | 21 | 100% |
| North Central Texas College | Gainesville | 65 | 100% |
| Northeast Texas Community College | Mount Pleasant | 22 | 100% |
| Odessa College | Monahans | 29 | 100% |
| Paris Junior College | Paris | 33 | 100% |
| San Jacinto College North | Houston | 41 | 100% |
| San Jacinto College South | Houston | 41 | 100% |
| South Plains College at Reese Center | Lubbock | 36 | 100% |
| Temple College | Temple | 27 | 100% |
| Texarkana College | Texarkana | 45 | 100% |
| Army Practical Nurse Course | Ft. Sam Houston | 259 | 99.6% |
| Austin Community College | Austin | 83 | 97.6% |
Below the board’s self-study line
These 8 programs came in under 80 per cent in 2025 and owe the board a self-study report. That is not a reason to rule one out on its own - small cohorts swing hard, and a program can recover - but it is a reason to ask pointed questions before you pay.
| Program | City | Candidates | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduate America | Houston | 2 | 50% |
| Arlington Career Institute | Grand Prairie | 27 | 51.9% |
| Trinity Valley Community College | Palestine | 10 | 70% |
| Tyler County Hospital | Woodville | 55 | 72.7% |
| Frank Phillips College | Borger | 41 | 73.2% |
| CyberTex Institute | Austin | 30 | 73.3% |
| Galveston College | Galveston | 12 | 75% |
| The Institute of Allied Health | San Antonio | 14 | 78.6% |
Pay by metro
Where the licence is worth most in Texas
Texas pays less than California at every point in the distribution, and has no state income tax and a lower cost of living. The metro spread inside the state is around $8,330.
| Metro area | Employed | Median | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | 3,620 | $64,580 | $78,270 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 12,590 | $64,370 | $77,620 |
| Midland, TX | 280 | $64,240 | $76,670 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 10,730 | $63,670 | $77,910 |
| Killeen-Temple, TX | 1,190 | $63,390 | $87,940 |
| Odessa, TX | 320 | $62,490 | $74,650 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 5,970 | $62,280 | $77,360 |
| Waco, TX | 780 | $62,070 | $78,570 |
| Amarillo, TX | 660 | $61,330 | $74,820 |
| Abilene, TX | 510 | $60,950 | $71,340 |
| Sherman-Denison, TX | 380 | $60,460 | $72,110 |
| Wichita Falls, TX | 550 | $60,330 | $72,930 |
| Longview, TX | 650 | $60,190 | $73,150 |
| College Station-Bryan, TX | 480 | $60,020 | $74,160 |
| Corpus Christi, TX | 990 | $59,810 | $72,700 |
| Tyler, TX | 810 | $59,550 | $71,520 |
| San Angelo, TX | 330 | $59,340 | $72,280 |
| El Paso, TX | 1,750 | $58,770 | $68,890 |
| Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX | 950 | $58,590 | $73,370 |
| Lubbock, TX | 1,080 | $58,510 | $70,130 |
| Victoria, TX | 340 | $58,130 | $69,310 |
| Texarkana, TX-AR | 440 | $57,370 | $68,700 |
| Eagle Pass, TX | 160 | $57,250 | $64,260 |
| Laredo, TX | 490 | $56,850 | $70,650 |
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 1,860 | $56,250 | $64,520 |
| Brownsville-Harlingen, TX | 1,260 | $56,250 | $65,570 |
Licensing
Texas licenses vocational nurses through the Texas Board of Nursing, which also handles registered nurses. If you have anything in your history that might affect eligibility, the board’s declaratory order process exists to answer that before you spend money on a program rather than after.
Requirements, fees and applications are at bon.texas.gov. This site is not affiliated with the board.
Texas LVN questions
- What is the NCLEX-PN pass rate for Texas LVN programs?
- 91.89% of the 4,180 first-time candidates in 2025, against a national average of 86.59 per cent. 26 Texas programs passed every candidate they sent. Source: Texas BON, 2025 NCLEX-PN examination pass rates.
- How many approved LVN programs does Texas have?
- 84 open programs, with 3 more in the board record that have closed. The board commends any program at 90 per cent or above and requires a self-study report below 80: 61 cleared the first line in 2025 and 8 fell under the second.
- How much does LVN school cost in Texas?
- Texas does not publish tuition centrally the way California does, so no figure is shown here and any site quoting one for every Texas program is guessing. Ask the school for total cost of attendance in writing before you enrol, and use the California range on this site as a sanity check on what the same licence costs elsewhere.
- What does an LVN earn in Texas?
- A median of $62,240 a year across the 57,560 vocational nurses working in the state, from $48,910 at the tenth percentile to $76,140 at the ninetieth. That is BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, and the metro table above shows how much of that spread is geography.
- Is a Texas LVN the same as an LPN?
- Yes. Texas and California call the licence vocational; the other 48 states call it practical. Same NCLEX-PN exam, same scope of practice, and the Texas Board of Nursing handles both vocational and registered nurses rather than running a separate vocational board.