CNA Certification in Colorado: 75-Hour Training

How to become a CNA in Colorado: a 75-hour state training minimum, the Credentia competency exam — verified from Colorado State Board of Nursing.

Source-verified

Requirements below are drawn from Colorado State Board of Nursing — Division of Professions and Occupations, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) (official site) and last verified August 16, 2026. Boards change fees and rules often — confirm before acting.

Requirements at a glance

What the credential is: A CERTIFICATE ISSUED BY A LICENSING BOARD, WITH BOTH THE TITLE AND THE WORK PROTECTED BY CRIMINAL STATUTE — the strongest legal framing in this cluster. The Board of Nursing certifies nurse aides under part 2 of C.R.S. article 255, the same article under which it licenses registered and practical nurses. The title is reserved: 'Only a person who holds a certificate to practice as a nurse aide in this state pursuant to part 2 of this article 255 has the right to use the title "certified nurse aide" and its abbreviation, "C.N.A."' And the WORK is reserved too, which most states do not do: C.R.S. 12-255-215 makes it a class 2 misdemeanor for 'Any person who practices or offers or attempts nursing aide practice or medication administration without an active certificate of authority issued under this part 2; practices in a medical facility as a nurse aide except as provided in this part 2; uses any designation in connection with the person's name that tends to imply that the person is a certified nurse aide unless the person is so certified under this part 2; practices as a nurse aide during any period when the person's certificate has been suspended or revoked; or sells or fraudulently obtains or furnishes a certificate to practice as a nurse aide or aids or abets therein'. THE REGISTRY IS A SEPARATE, SUBORDINATE RECORD: Rule 1.17 establishes the Colorado Certified Nurse Aide Registry, which 'maintains information on certified nurse aides with certification in the state of Colorado' — full name including maiden and other surnames, last known address, date of birth, date the original Colorado certification was granted, certification status and expiry, certification number, 'Name and address of entity that administered competency evaluation', any finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation with the state's investigation documentation and the aide's own disputing statement, and any disciplinary action. WHO DOES WHAT: the Board sets the rules, approves the training programmes and issues the certificates; the Executive Officer is delegated 'authority to administer examinations, issue certificates by endorsement and examination, and to renew certificates' (Rule 1.10(C)(7)); and the competency evaluation itself is contracted out under a contract 'approved by the Executive Officer or designee' (Rule 1.10(D)(2)). A seven-member Nurse Aide Advisory Committee created under C.R.S. 12-255-207 reports to the Board and reviews certain applications. Funding is federal: 'Funding for the nurse aide certification program, as operated by the department of regulatory agencies, shall be provided by the federal medicaid and medicare programs' (C.R.S. 12-255-201(2)).
The standard route: Complete a Colorado Board-approved nurse aide training programme of at least 75 hours, pass both parts of the competency evaluation, and the certificate follows. C.R.S. 12-255-203 states the two conditions for applying by competency evaluation: written evidence that the applicant 'Has not committed any act or omission that would be grounds for discipline or denial of certification under this article 255' and 'Has successfully completed an approved education program.' Rule 1.10(D)(11) adds the mechanics: the current Board-approved application form, payment of all applicable application and examination fees, verification of educational credentials — 'any individual who has an active or expired nursing or psychiatric technician license in good standing need not provide transcripts' — and meeting 'all state and federal requirements for certification in Colorado.'
Nursing education counts as nurse aide training: Colorado deems nursing and psychiatric technician programmes to BE nurse aide training programmes, which is a broader route than most states publish. Rule 1.10(D)(8): 'Practical and professional nursing education programs and psychiatric technician training programs in the United States and its territories are deemed to be nurse aide training programs provided the program has been approved by the appropriate agency of the state/territory in which the program is located', and their students may sit the competency evaluation after completing either 'Five semester credit hours, or its equivalent, of nursing courses that include the content required under Rule 1.11' or 'Five semester credit hours of a psychiatric technician training program' with the same content. FOREIGN NURSING EDUCATION QUALIFIES ON THE SAME TERMS, subject to translation: programmes outside the United States 'are deemed to be nurse aide training programs and their graduates are eligible to take the Competency evaluation provided: a. The credentials of education are translated into English; b. The requirement of Section (D)(8)(a) of Rule 1.10 is met', plus the general application requirements. The Board's own FAQ says it plainly: 'To work as a Certified Nurse Aide in Colorado you must be certified in Colorado. If you have five semester hours of fundamentals of nursing, or its equivalent on your English-translated transcript, you meet the educational requirements. You must be legally present in the U.S. and you must pass the certification exam.' MILITARY TRAINING: 'At the discretion of the Board and prior to taking the Competency evaluation, individuals trained in the United States military will be allowed to sit for examination by showing substantially equivalent training on transcripts that meet the requirements of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987' (Rule 1.10(D)(10)).
The two-year application clock and the three-attempt bar: Rule 1.10(D)(12) contains the two limits that most often catch Colorado candidates. First: 'The applicant must have successfully completed both the written and manual skills Competency evaluation within two years of the receipt of the application for certification.' The exam vendor states the consequence: 'If you do not take and pass the exam (written and skills) in that two-year period, the application will expire and a new application with required fees will have to be completed and paid again.' Second, and unusually harsh: 'An applicant who fails any component of the Competency evaluation three times, must repeat a nurse aide training program before being eligible to apply for nurse aide certification or to take the Competency evaluation AT ANY TIME IN THE FUTURE.' Separately, Rule 1.10(G)(2): 'Any application not completed within one year of the date of the original application expires and will be purged.'
Criminal history and profile disclosure: Colorado screens by disclosure rather than by fingerprint for this credential — no fingerprint or criminal-history-check step for nurse aides appears in C.R.S. article 255 part 2, in Rule 1.10, or on any Division nurse aide page read on 2026-08-16. What every applicant does have to do, per the Division's Certified Nurse Aide Licensing Guide, is 'Answer general and criminal history screening questions and upload supporting documentation' and 'Complete the Healthcare Professions Profile, including uploading supporting documentation.' The Board may withhold or deny certification where it determines the applicant lacks the qualifications in C.R.S. 12-255-203 or 12-255-204 or where 'there is reasonable cause to believe that the applicant has committed any of the acts set forth' as grounds for discipline (C.R.S. 12-255-210), and the grounds themselves are in C.R.S. 12-255-209.
The scope of practice is broader than the training: Colorado gives a CNA an EXPANDED scope by statute, unlocked one task at a time by a registered nurse's judgement. C.R.S. 12-255-206(1): in addition to tasks delegated under 12-255-131, 'a certified nurse aide who is deemed competent by a registered nurse licensed pursuant to part 1 of this article 255 may perform the following tasks: (a) Digital stimulation, insertion of a suppository, or the use of an enema, or any other medically acceptable procedure to stimulate a bowel movement; (b) Gastrostomy-tube and jejunostomy-tube feedings; (c) Placement in a client's mouth of presorted medication that has been boxed or packaged by a registered nurse, a licensed practical nurse, or a pharmacist or, in the case of a client who is a minor, presorted medication that has been sorted by the minor's parent or guardian; (d) Administration of oxygen to clients; and (e) Changing ostomy bags.' Those tasks 'are not considered a delegation of nursing tasks', and 'A registered nurse who in good faith determines that a certified nurse aide is competent to perform the tasks listed in subsection (1) of this section is not liable for the actions of the certified nurse aide in the performance of the tasks.' COMPETENCE MUST BE RE-CONFIRMED: Rule 1.10(C)(5) defines 'Continued Competence' as the CNA's ability to perform the expanded-scope tasks set out in Section (I)(3) of Rule 1.10 'with reasonable skill and safety to a client, as deemed by the RN's direct observation of the CNA's clinical performance of the task to occur not less than annually after initially being deemed competent.' A separate term sits in the next paragraph: Rule 1.10(C)(6) defines 'Deemed Competent' as 'the RN's determination that the CNA is competent to perform the task with reasonable skill and safety to a client.' All CNA practice is supervised: Rule 1.10(I)(1) requires 'supervision of tasks by an actively licensed healthcare professional... a dentist, physician, podiatrist, professional nurse, licensed practical nurse, or other licensed or certified health care professional acting within the scope of the license or certificate.'
Name and address changes are a 30-day duty: Rule 1.10(G)(3): 'The nurse aide must supply to the Board legal evidence of name change within thirty days of the effective date of the name change' and 'must notify the Board within thirty days of any change of address.' The rule then makes the consequence explicit — any Board notice goes to the last address the nurse aide provided in writing, 'and any such mailing is deemed proper service of process on said nurse aide.' The Board also puts the record-keeping on the aide: 'The nurse aide is responsible for maintaining his/her own documentation of skills, education and test results', and its FAQ warns that 'Graduates should maintain their original certificates, as the Nurse Aide Training programs only maintain records for two years.'

Legal basis

Colorado State Board of Nursing — Division of Professions and Occupations, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Colorado. Every figure below is verified against the board’s own official pages and dated. Who must personally hold a credential — the contractor, the business, or the individual worker — is set out under Requirements.

What it’s called

Colorado’s statutory term is ‘certified nurse aide’, and both the term and the abbreviation are reserved by statute: ‘Only a person who holds a certificate to practice as a nurse aide in this state pursuant to part 2 of this article 255 has the right to use the title “certified nurse aide” and its abbreviation, “C.N.A.”’ (C.R.S. 12-255-104(3.3)). ‘Certified nursing assistant’ is the common national phrasing and what job postings say; Colorado’s own documents do not use it. WHAT COLORADO ISSUES IS A CERTIFICATE, and the Division’s own materials nonetheless slip into licence vocabulary — its Certified Nurse Aide Licensing Guide says ‘You must be licensed by DORA to work as a certified nurse aide (CNA) in Colorado’ and its application list is headed ‘Initial License by Examination Method’ — so both words appear in state text for the same credential. ‘CNA-MED’ IS A REAL COLORADO TERM and is not the same credential: it is a certified nurse aide who has been granted Medication Aide Authority under C.R.S. 12-255-208 and Rule 1.18, with its own training programme, its own examination and its own supervising-nurse recommendation. ‘STNA’ is Ohio’s term and ‘LNA’ belongs to some New England states; neither appears in Colorado law. A NURSING STUDENT EXTERN is a separate Colorado status the Board’s FAQ lists alongside the CNA, practising ‘under the direct supervision of a licensed Registered Nurse’. A ‘certified midwife’ and a ‘psychiatric technician’ are other credentials of the same Board and are not nurse aide credentials, though a psychiatric technician training programme can qualify a person to sit the nurse aide examination.

License types & fees

Type	Notes	Who Its For
Certified Nurse Aide (C.N.A.) — certification by competency evaluation	Issued by the Colorado State Board of Nursing, not by a health department or a registry contractor. The statute reserves the words: 'Only a person who holds a certificate to practice as a nurse aide in this state pursuant to part 2 of this article 255 has the right to use the title "certified nurse aide" and its abbreviation, "C.N.A."' (C.R.S. 12-255-104(3.3)). The examination application is filed with the Board's contracted exam vendor rather than with the Division: 'The State Board of Nursing has authorized Credentia, to process its applications for Initial Licensure by Examination Method.' Certificates expire on a fixed statewide date — 'All Certified Nurse Aides expire on January 31 of odd-numbered years.'	An applicant who has completed a Colorado Board-approved nurse aide training programme, or who qualifies through nursing education, and has not previously been certified.
Certified Nurse Aide — certification by endorsement	Colorado routes this through a general statutory programme rather than a nurse-aide-specific rule: 'An applicant may obtain certification by endorsement if the applicant satisfies the requirements of the occupational credential portability program' (C.R.S. 12-255-204). Rule 1.10(E) sets out the proof required — substantially equivalent education, experience or credentials, OR at least one year holding a current and valid nurse aide certificate in a jurisdiction with a substantially similar scope of practice — plus an attestation under penalty of perjury that the applicant has committed no act that would be grounds for discipline. Filed online through DPO Online Services, with the application fee.	An applicant already certified in good standing as a nurse aide in another U.S. state or territory, or through the federal government, or holding a qualifying military occupational specialty.
Certified Nurse Aide — telehealth credential	An unusual credential for this occupation and a distinct Colorado application method — the Division's own list is 'Certified Nurse Aide - Initial License by Endorsement or Telehealth Method'. The Division's Certified Nurse Aide Licensing Guide sets three conditions: 'Provide verification of an active license as a Certified Nurse Aide in another state or jurisdiction. If you do not have an active certification, do not apply. Attest that you will practice telehealth ONLY. Provide the name and contact information of a Registered Agent in the state of Colorado.'	A nurse aide certified and active in another state or jurisdiction who will practise into Colorado by telehealth only.
Medication Aide Authority (CNA-Med) — a SEPARATE authority added to a CNA certificate, not covered by this record	Colorado layers a medication administration authority on top of the nurse aide certificate under C.R.S. 12-255-208 and Rule 1.18, and its holder is a 'CNA-Med'. It requires an active Colorado CNA certificate, a Board-approved medication aide training programme, a pass on a separate examination, and 'your letter of recommendation on facility letterhead from your current supervising nurse, director of nursing, or nursing home administrator.' Nothing in this record describes it beyond noting that it exists and is separate.	Not covered here.
Temporary certification for a military spouse	Rule 1.10(H): such a spouse 'shall be entitled to a temporary license as set forth in section 12-20-202, C.R.S.'	The spouse of a person actively serving in the U.S. Armed Forces who is stationed in Colorado under military orders.

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

Colorado’s exclusions are statutory, unusually well drafted, and narrower than they first look. C.R.S. 12-255-214(1): ‘This part 2 does not affect or apply to: (a) The gratuitous care of friends or family members; (b) A person for hire who does not represent himself or herself as or hold himself or herself out to the public as a certified nurse aide. However, a person for hire who is not a nurse aide certified under this part 2 shall not perform the duties of or hold himself or herself out as being able to perform the full duties of a certified nurse aide. (c) Nursing assistance in the case of an emergency; (d) A person who is directly employed by a medical facility while acting within the scope and course of employment for the first four consecutive months of the person’s employment at the medical facility if the employment is part of an approved training program prior to certification and the certification is not by endorsement pursuant to section 12-255-204. A person may utilize this exclusion only once in any twelve-month period. This exclusion does not apply to any person who has allowed the person’s certification to lapse, had the person’s certification as a nurse aide suspended or revoked, or had an application for certification denied. (e) Any person licensed, certified, or registered by the state of Colorado who is acting within the scope of the license, certificate, or registration; (f) Any person performing services pursuant to sections 12-255-131, 25.5-10-204 (2)(j), 27-10.5-103 (2)(i), and part 3 of article 1.5 of title 25.’ READ (b) AND (d) CAREFULLY, because they are where Colorado differs from most states. Paragraph (b) is a partial-duties exclusion, not a free pass: an uncertified paid caregiver may work only so long as they neither hold out as a CNA nor ‘perform the duties of’ a full CNA. Paragraph (d) is Colorado’s version of the federal four-month window, and Colorado adds three conditions the federal rule does not: the work must be part of an approved training programme leading to certification, the exclusion may be used ‘only once in any twelve-month period’, and it is unavailable to anyone whose certification has lapsed or been suspended, revoked or denied. The Board’s own FAQ confirms the family carve-out: ‘The Colorado Nurse Practice Act and Nurse Aide Act does not prohibit RNs, LPNs or CNAs from caring for family members.’ EVERYTHING OUTSIDE THOSE EXCLUSIONS IS A CRIME, not merely unlicensed activity: C.R.S. 12-255-215 makes practising, offering or attempting nurse aide practice without an active certificate a class 2 misdemeanor. That combination — a full practice bar with narrow, conditional exclusions — is what makes Colorado’s certificate function like a licence.

Fees

COLORADO CHARGES A STATE APPLICATION FEE, BUT DOES NOT PUBLISH THE AMOUNT ON ANY PAGE READ. The statute requires one: every applicant, ‘whether qualifying by competency evaluation or by endorsement, shall submit the application on forms provided by the board’ and ‘shall include with the application… an application fee established pursuant to section 12-20-105’ (C.R.S. 12-255-202). Two features of that fee are unusual and are stated in the same section: ‘The board may reduce the application fee if federal funds are available’ — which follows from the programme being federally funded under C.R.S. 12-255-201(2) — and ‘The fee is not subject to the provisions of section 12-20-104.’ Every application route repeats the requirement without a figure: the Division’s Certified Nurse Aide Licensing Guide tells endorsement, reinstatement and medication-aide applicants to ‘Submit payment of the required application fee via credit card. All fees are non-refundable and non-transferable’, and Rule 1.10 conditions renewal, reinstatement and re-examination on ‘Payment of the required fee’ throughout. WHERE THE NUMBER WOULD BE, AND WHY IT IS NOT HERE: the Division’s own Nursing Applications page says ‘All fees and mailing instructions are available on the respective applications and forms’, and the applications are filed inside the DPO Online Services system where the fee is shown at checkout. The two Division pages that would carry the CNA-specific fee list — the Board’s CNA Applications and Forms page and its Licensing Services page — both return ‘Access denied. You are not authorized to access this page’ to the public, and did so when checked again from a second network location on August 16, 2026, so the figure could not be read from a state source and is deliberately not stated here. A LATE FEE EXISTS but its amount is likewise unpublished: ‘Nurse aide certificate renewal applications postmarked after the certificate’s expiration date and prior to the end of the grace period, may be assessed a late fee’ (Rule 1.10(F)(1)(a)(1)). Separate payments are required for each renewal application. EXAMINATION FEES ARE THE VENDOR’S AND ARE ALSO UNPUBLISHED IN THE CANDIDATE HANDBOOK: ‘You must pay for both the Skills Evaluation and the Written (or Oral) Examination the first time you test. Payment must be made in the form of a credit card, debit card single-use card or electronic voucher. Vouchers can be purchased by the training programs. Fees are not refundable.’ The Colorado handbook, unlike the same vendor’s handbooks for some other states, prints no fee table at all. ‘Once payment of exam fees is received, NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED.’ TRAINING COST is set by the approved programme and is not published by the Board.

Exam

Two parts, both required. Rule 1.10(C)(3) defines the competency evaluation as ’the evaluation instrument approved by the Board consisting of both a written and a manual skills component’, and the statute requires that ‘All applicants except those certified by endorsement shall pass a clinical competency evaluation. The evaluation shall be in a written or oral form’ covering basic nursing skills, personal care skills, recognition of mental health and social services needs, basic restorative services, and resident or patient rights. WRITTEN — per the vendor’s Colorado handbook: ‘The Written Examination has seventy (70) multiple-choice questions. You will have two (2) hours to complete the Written Examination. You will be told when fifteen (15) minutes are left to finish.’ Answers go on a separate answer sheet: ‘Markings in the test booklet will not be accepted as answers.’ ORAL — for candidates who have difficulty reading English: ‘The Oral Examination includes sixty (60) multiple-choice questions plus ten (10) reading comprehension/word recognition questions’, requested at registration. A Spanish candidate handbook is published alongside the English one. SKILLS — ‘For the Skills portion of your test, you will be asked to perform five (5) randomly selected nurse aide skills. You will be rated on these skills by a Nurse Evaluator.’ Candidates must arrive 30 minutes early for both parts, bring two forms of current signed identification with one photograph, three sharpened No. 2 pencils, an eraser and a watch with a second hand, and ‘If you are not logged in ten minutes prior to the exam start time, or you do not bring all of your required materials, you will not be allowed to test and your fees will not be refunded’ — and an identification failure ‘will count as one of your 3 opportunities to test’. Online remotely proctored testing is offered, with a 360-degree room scan through a separate app. RESULTS AND RETESTS: applicants ‘are informed in writing regarding the results of the Competency evaluation’, and the Board ‘releases Competency evaluation results only to the applicant or the nurse aide with written authorization’ (Rule 1.10(D)(5)-(6)). Rescheduling is allowed once and requires at least nine business days’ notice; ‘Once payment of exam fees is received, NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED.’ The three-strike consequence is the harshest in this cluster: failing any component three times means repeating a nurse aide training programme ‘before being eligible to apply for nurse aide certification or to take the Competency evaluation at any time in the future.’ ONE PROTECTION FOR THE CANDIDATE: ‘In the event that applicant examination materials are lost or destroyed through circumstances beyond the control of the Board, the applicant will be required to retake the Competency evaluation’ — the retake is required, but it is the Board’s rule rather than a vendor policy.

Renewal & continuing education

BIENNIAL, ON A FIXED STATEWIDE DATE: ‘All Certified Nurse Aides expire on January 31 of odd-numbered years’, regardless of when the certificate was issued. New applicants get a stub period rather than a short first term — the Division applies a bump: ‘All new applicants who are issued a license within 120 days of the upcoming renewal expiration date will be issued a license with the next expiration date.’ Renewals open roughly four to five weeks before expiry. WHAT RENEWAL REQUIRES IS WORK, ATTESTED: Rule 1.10(F)(2) — ‘A nurse aide must attest that she/he has received monetary compensation for performing at least eight hours of nursing care activities during the twenty-four months prior to the renewal or reinstatement application date. This attestation serves as proof of this requirement.’ Nothing is uploaded; the attestation is the proof, and the same attestation on a reinstatement application ‘serves as the verification of the eight hours of compensated nursing care activities’ (Rule 1.10(F)(6)). The Division’s own guide confirms the work may be done anywhere: an applicant attests to ‘Having performed nursing care activities for monetary compensation with an active certificate, in any state or territory of the United States, for at least 8 hours within the last 24 months.’ THERE IS A SIXTY-DAY GRACE PERIOD, AND IT IS THE HINGE: ‘A certificate that is not renewed by the nurse aide within the renewal period including the sixty day grace period will be subject to reinstatement requirements’ (Rule 1.10(F)(1)(b)). A renewal filed after expiry but inside the grace period may be charged a late fee. Proof of renewal in the meantime is practical rather than formal: ‘The certificate holder’s online renewal confirmation or a receipt from the Board will be considered as proof of renewal until the renewed certificate is issued.’ IF THE EIGHT HOURS CANNOT BE ATTESTED, renewal is still possible but the exam substitutes for the work: Rule 1.10(F)(5)(a) requires the renewal application, the fee, and ‘Evidence that the nurse aide has passed the Board’s Competency evaluation within the past twenty-four months.’ No continuing education is required at any point. NONE. Colorado requires no continuing education of certified nurse aides. Rule 1.10(F), which sets out the requirements for renewal and reinstatement in full, conditions renewal on the application, the fee, and an attestation of eight compensated hours of nursing care activities in the preceding 24 months — and on nothing else. C.R.S. 12-255-202 through 12-255-205 impose no education condition after certification, and the Board’s continuing education rule, Rule 1.23, is written for licensed nurses rather than for nurse aides. Tiers searched on 2026-08-16: the whole of 3 CCR 716-1 including Rules 1.10, 1.11, 1.17, 1.18 and 1.23; C.R.S. article 255 part 2; the Board’s Nursing Applications page; its Nursing FAQ; and the Board’s Certified Nurse Aide Licensing Guide. WHAT COLORADO SUBSTITUTES FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION IS AN ANNUAL COMPETENCE CHECK BY A NURSE, and it is a condition of practising the expanded scope rather than of holding the certificate: Rule 1.10(C)(5) defines ‘Continued Competence’ as the CNA’s ability to perform the expanded-scope tasks ‘with reasonable skill and safety to a client, as deemed by the RN’s direct observation of the CNA’s clinical performance of the task to occur not less than annually after initially being deemed competent.’ So a Colorado CNA who performs tube feedings, suppositories, oxygen administration, presorted medication placement or ostomy care must be re-observed by a registered nurse at least once a year — but nothing about that is filed with the Board, and it does not appear on the renewal.

How to apply

Applications are handled by Colorado State Board of Nursing — Division of Professions and Occupations, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Colorado

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies — Division of Professions and Occupations publishes a public license search . It covers All credentials the Division issues, certified nurse aides included; the Board of Nursing links it from its own home page as ‘Lookup a License/ Licensee’ and as ‘Verify a License’. THE FIELD LIST COULD NOT BE READ AND IS THEREFORE NOT STATED. The lookup sits behind an automated-traffic challenge — a page headed ‘Let’s confirm you are human’ that asks the visitor to ‘Complete the security check before continuing’ — so the search form itself is never delivered to anything but a person working through a normal web browser, and no result can be bookmarked, linked to or shared. Anyone verifying a Colorado nurse aide has to open the page in a browser and clear the check first. A SECOND ADDRESS FOR THE SAME TOOL is published on the same Board page, at apps2.colorado.gov rather than apps.colorado.gov; both behave the same way, and the address recorded here is the one the Board’s ‘Lookup a License/ Licensee’ button uses. Behind the lookup is the register itself, established by Rule 1.17: the Colorado Certified Nurse Aide Registry holds the aide’s full name including maiden and other surnames, last known address, date of birth, the date original Colorado certification was granted, status and expiry, certification number, the name and address of the entity that administered the competency evaluation, any finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation together with the state’s investigation documentation and any statement the aide chooses to file disputing it, and any disciplinary action. The Board also publishes a downloadable licensee and discipline list from its home page.

Records come from Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies — Division of Professions and Occupations’s own system. LicensingAtlas does not hold license records and cannot confirm any individual’s status — the date on this page refers to the requirements described above, not to anyone’s credential.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Colorado CNA a license or a certification?

A certification, issued by the Colorado State Board of Nursing — but it behaves like a licence, because Colorado protects both the title and the work by criminal statute. ‘Only a person who holds a certificate to practice as a nurse aide in this state pursuant to part 2 of this article 255 has the right to use the title “certified nurse aide” and its abbreviation, “C.N.A.”’ And C.R.S. 12-255-215 makes it a class 2 misdemeanor for any person who ‘practices or offers or attempts nursing aide practice… without an active certificate of authority’, who ‘practices in a medical facility as a nurse aide except as provided in this part 2’, or who uses any designation implying they are a certified nurse aide when they are not. The Division’s own guide puts it in licence language: ‘You must be licensed by DORA to work as a certified nurse aide (CNA) in Colorado.’

How many hours of CNA training does Colorado require?

75 hours — the federal minimum — but with a specific shape. The Board’s rule requires ‘A minimum of seventy-five hours of instruction to include no less than 16 hours of classroom instruction and no less than sixteen hours of clinical instruction under the direct supervision of an RN or LPN’, and the first 16 of the 75 are pre-clinical, defined as the portion ’that occurs prior to any direct contact with a Client’. Those pre-clinical hours must cover communications and interpersonal skills, infection control, and safety and emergency procedures including the Heimlich manoeuvre, among the areas listed. A training programme that wants to change its hour count has to tell the Board before it does so.

Who gives the CNA exam in Colorado?

Credentia, administering the NNAAP examination for the Board of Nursing — and in Colorado the vendor takes the application too: ‘The State Board of Nursing has authorized Credentia, to process its applications for Initial Licensure by Examination Method.’ The rule names no company, saying only that the Board ‘will review and may accept a Competency evaluation’ under a contract approved by its Executive Officer, so the vendor can change without a rulemaking. The statute fixes the substance instead: the evaluation must be written or oral, must cover basic nursing skills, personal care skills, recognition of mental health and social services needs, basic restorative services and resident or patient rights, and ‘shall be held at least four times per year.’

What is on the Colorado CNA exam?

A written (or oral) test and a skills evaluation, and both must be passed. ‘The Written Examination has seventy (70) multiple-choice questions. You will have two (2) hours to complete the Written Examination.’ Candidates who have difficulty reading English may take an oral version instead — ‘sixty (60) multiple-choice questions plus ten (10) reading comprehension/word recognition questions’ — requested at registration, and a Spanish candidate handbook is published. On the skills side, ‘you will be asked to perform five (5) randomly selected nurse aide skills’ rated by a Nurse Evaluator. Bring two current signed IDs with one photograph, three sharpened No. 2 pencils, an eraser and a watch with a second hand, and arrive 30 minutes early — an identification failure counts as one of your three test opportunities.

How many times can you fail the Colorado CNA exam?

Twice, and the third failure is permanent unless you retrain. Colorado’s rule is the strictest in this cluster: ‘An applicant who fails any component of the Competency evaluation three times, must repeat a nurse aide training program before being eligible to apply for nurse aide certification or to take the Competency evaluation at any time in the future.’ A separate clock runs alongside it: both parts must be passed ‘within two years of the receipt of the application for certification’, and if they are not, the application expires and a new one with new fees is required.

What does a Colorado CNA certificate cost?

There is a state application fee, and Colorado does not publish the amount anywhere a candidate can read before applying. The statute requires it — every applicant ‘shall include with the application… an application fee established pursuant to section 12-20-105’ — and adds two unusual features: ‘The board may reduce the application fee if federal funds are available’, because the nurse aide certification programme is funded by federal Medicaid and Medicare money, and ‘The fee is not subject to the provisions of section 12-20-104.’ The Division says only that ‘All fees and mailing instructions are available on the respective applications and forms’, and the fee appears inside the online application. The two Division pages that would list CNA fees currently return ‘Access denied’ to the public. Examination fees are paid separately to the exam vendor, whose Colorado handbook likewise prints no fee table — only that you ‘must pay for both the Skills Evaluation and the Written (or Oral) Examination the first time you test’ and that ‘Fees are not refundable.’

When does a Colorado CNA certificate expire and how do you renew it?

‘All Certified Nurse Aides expire on January 31 of odd-numbered years’, whatever date the certificate was issued — though a certificate issued within 120 days of that date is given the following expiration instead. Renewal asks for one thing beyond the application and fee: ‘A nurse aide must attest that she/he has received monetary compensation for performing at least eight hours of nursing care activities during the twenty-four months prior to the renewal or reinstatement application date. This attestation serves as proof of this requirement.’ The work may have been done in any U.S. state or territory. Nothing is uploaded and no continuing education is required. There is a sixty-day grace period after expiry, during which a late fee may apply; after it, reinstatement rules take over.

Do Colorado CNAs need continuing education?

No. The Board’s renewal rule asks only for the application, the fee and the eight-hour work attestation, and no continuing education requirement for nurse aides appears anywhere in 3 CCR 716-1 or in C.R.S. article 255 part 2. What Colorado requires instead is an annual competence check by a nurse, and it attaches to the expanded scope of practice rather than to the certificate: ‘Continued Competence’ is defined as the CNA’s ability to perform the expanded-scope tasks safely ‘as deemed by the RN’s direct observation of the CNA’s clinical performance of the task to occur not less than annually after initially being deemed competent.’ That observation is not filed with the Board and does not appear on the renewal.

What can a Colorado CNA do that CNAs in other states cannot?

Colorado gives nurse aides an expanded scope by statute, unlocked task by task by a registered nurse. C.R.S. 12-255-206(1) lets a CNA ‘who is deemed competent by a registered nurse’ perform digital stimulation, insertion of a suppository or the use of an enema or any other medically acceptable procedure to stimulate a bowel movement; gastrostomy-tube and jejunostomy-tube feedings; placement in a client’s mouth of presorted medication boxed or packaged by a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse or pharmacist (or, for a minor, sorted by the parent or guardian); administration of oxygen; and changing ostomy bags. Those tasks ‘are not considered a delegation of nursing tasks’, and an RN who in good faith deems the aide competent ‘is not liable for the actions of the certified nurse aide in the performance of the tasks.’ The aide’s competence must be re-observed at least annually.

What happens if a Colorado CNA certificate expires?

Inside two years it can be reinstated on an application, the fee and the same eight-hour work attestation — or, if those hours cannot be attested, on ‘Evidence that the nurse aide has passed the Board’s Competency evaluation within the past twenty-four months.’ Past two years there is no reinstatement path: ‘To reinstate a certificate that has been expired for more than two years, the applicant must re-take and pass the Competency evaluation.’ Reinstatement applicants must also ‘Detail any work as an NA in Colorado since your license has been expired’, answer criminal history screening questions and complete the Healthcare Professions Profile.

Can a CNA certified in another state work in Colorado?

Yes, by endorsement, and without retesting. ‘An applicant may obtain certification by endorsement if the applicant satisfies the requirements of the occupational credential portability program’ — which the Board’s rule spells out as being currently certified in good standing elsewhere (or holding a qualifying military occupational specialty) plus proof under penalty of perjury either of ‘substantially equivalent education, experience, or credentials’ or of having ‘held for at least one year a current and valid certificate as a nurse aide in a jurisdiction with a scope of practice that is substantially similar’ to Colorado’s, and that the applicant has committed no act that would be grounds for discipline. Endorsement applicants are expressly exempt from the competency evaluation. If your out-of-state certificate has already lapsed, the endorsement route closes and you apply by examination on proof of your state-approved training instead. Colorado also offers a separate telehealth credential for an out-of-state CNA practising remotely into Colorado, which requires an active out-of-state certification and a Colorado registered agent.

Can you work as a nurse aide in Colorado before you are certified?

Only inside a narrow statutory exclusion, and Colorado’s version of the four-month window has conditions the federal rule does not. C.R.S. 12-255-214(1)(d) excludes ‘A person who is directly employed by a medical facility while acting within the scope and course of employment for the first four consecutive months of the person’s employment at the medical facility if the employment is part of an approved training program prior to certification’ — and then adds that ‘A person may utilize this exclusion only once in any twelve-month period’ and that it ‘does not apply to any person who has allowed the person’s certification to lapse, had the person’s certification as a nurse aide suspended or revoked, or had an application for certification denied.’ Other exclusions cover the gratuitous care of friends or family, nursing assistance in an emergency, other Colorado-licensed professionals acting within their own scope, and a paid caregiver who neither holds out as a CNA nor performs ’the full duties of a certified nurse aide.’ Outside those, practising as a nurse aide without a certificate is a class 2 misdemeanor.

How do you verify a Colorado CNA certificate?

Through the Division of Professions and Occupations licensee lookup, which the Board links from its home page. Be aware of one practical obstacle: the lookup sits behind an automated-traffic check — a page asking you to ‘Complete the security check before continuing’ — so it has to be opened by a person in a normal web browser, and a result cannot be saved as a link. Behind it is the Colorado Certified Nurse Aide Registry, which by rule holds the aide’s name and any former names, date of birth, date of original Colorado certification, status and expiry, certification number, the entity that administered the competency evaluation, any finding of abuse, neglect or misappropriation together with the aide’s own statement disputing it, and any disciplinary action. The Board also publishes a downloadable licensee and discipline list.

Is Colorado's CNA certification about to change?

It is under formal review. The Board of Nursing’s own page states that ‘The Colorado Office of Policy, Research and Regulatory Reform is currently conducting a sunset review of the Board of Nursing and Nurse Aide Certification. Analysis is performed to determine if these programs are necessary and should be continued, modified, or repealed.’ A sunset review is Colorado’s standing mechanism for re-examining a regulatory programme; nothing about the current requirements changes unless and until the legislature acts on it.

See every license and certification LicensingAtlas covers in Colorado.

Sources & verification

Last verified against these sources: August 16, 2026.

We re-fetch every cited source on a weekly schedule: see what changed at the agencies, or every correction we have ever made.

LicensingAtlas states licensing and certification requirements categorically from official sources. It is a reference, not legal or career advice, and requirements change frequently — confirm details with the issuing board before you act.