CNA Certification in Indiana — Requirements & Fees

Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) — Aide Training, Certification, and Registry program, which maintains the Indiana Aides Registry. Determinations about who qualifies, who is renewed, and what the training curriculum must contain are made by a statutory body: the certified health care professions commission (IC 16-27.5-2-1), which the Department’s own pages call the Certified Healthcare Professions Commission. The competency examination itself is administered by Ivy Tech Community College under the Department. Indiana’s Board of Nursing licenses nurses and has no role in nurse aide certification. administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Indiana. 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

Indiana’s own noun is CERTIFIED NURSE AIDE, and the initials are protected in criminal law — IC 16-27.5-3-8 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to knowingly use ’the initials “CNA” or any other words, letters, abbreviations, or insignia indicating or implying that the individual is a certified nurse aide’ without holding the certification. The Department’s own pages drift between ‘certified nurse aide’ (the statutory term, and the one in the programme’s title) and ‘certified nursing aide’ (used in the Department’s plain-language explainer: ‘A certified nursing aide (CNA) is someone who works mainly in long-term care facilities’), so both appear in official Indiana text. ‘Certified nursing assistant’, the phrase the rest of the country uses, is not Indiana’s term but maps to the same credential. The public record is the INDIANA AIDES REGISTRY — one registry covering three credentials (CNA, QMA, HHA), which is why ’nurse aide registry’ and ‘aides registry’ are both used. Two more names belong to the state’s system and not to the aide: NAT and NATCEP, the Nurse Aide Training program and the Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program, are the training side; the CERTIFIED HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONS COMMISSION is the body that decides qualifications, and its name is spelled ‘Certified Healthcare Professions Commission’ on the Department’s pages and ‘certified health care professions commission’ in the statute. Distinguish also QMA (Qualified Medication Aide — a CNA with extra training), HHA (Home Health Aide — agency-trained, not state-curriculum-trained) and DINING ASSISTANT (16 hours, feeding only). ‘CNA license’ is a folk term: what Indiana issues is a certification, and the Department calls the physical document a card printed from MyLicenseOne — though Ivy Tech’s candidate FAQ slips and calls it a ’license’ in one answer.

License types & fees

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

INDIANA PUBLISHES NO OCCUPATIONAL EXEMPTION LIST OF THE KIND A TRADE LICENCE CARRIES. The requirement is written as a flat prohibition on the person — ‘An individual may not work as a certified nurse aide unless the individual holds a certification under this chapter’ (IC 16-27.5-3-9) — and as a title bar reaching anyone who would ‘profess to be a certified nurse aide’ or use the initials ‘CNA’ without holding one (IC 16-27.5-3-8). WHAT EXISTS INSTEAD IS A HIRING WINDOW, and Indiana states it two different ways. THE STATUTE ties it to enrolment, not to a number of days on the job: ‘A nurse aide who is hired to work in a health care facility shall: (1) have successfully completed a nurse aide training program approved by the state department; or (2) be enrolled in the first available approved training program that begins not more than sixty (60) days from the date of the nurse aide’s employment’ (IC 16-27.5-3-3(a)). IVY TECH’S CANDIDATE MATERIAL states a flat 120-day allowance instead: ‘If you are working as a CNA, you can work for 120 days from your hire date before you must be certified’, and the same 120 days for a transferring out-of-state aide. Those are different tests — enrolment within 60 days versus certification within 120 days — and both come from official Indiana material, so this record reports both and reconciles neither. THE OTHER BOUNDARY IS THE SETTING RATHER THAN THE TASK: ‘Those who want to work in a licensed nursing home, home health agency, or hospice must be listed (by name) in the aides registry’, and before hiring, ‘healthcare organizations must check the registry to verify the aide’s credentials and ensure that there are no issues reported against them.’ Adjacent Indiana roles are separately credentialed rather than exempted — a dining assistant completes a 16-hour approved program, a home health aide completes an agency competency evaluation and training meeting 42 CFR 484.80, and a qualified medication aide must first be a CNA. NOT FOUND on 2026-08-16 in any Indiana source read: any exemption for a nursing student working as an aide outside the certification routes, any exemption for a licensed nurse, any private-duty or family-caregiver carve-out, and any exemption from the registry requirement for a hospital that is not a health care facility under IC 16-28. This record makes no claim about those; they were searched and are not published.

Fees

INDIANA CHARGES NO STATE APPLICATION FEE AND NO RENEWAL FEE. The Department states the renewal side flatly: ‘Renewal is free and completed through MyLicenseOne.’ No certification, registry-entry or card fee appears on any of the Department’s nurse aide pages. WHAT YOU DO PAY IS THE EXAMINATION, and it is paid to Ivy Tech: ‘Effective January 1, 2025, the fee structure for testing at Ivy Tech Community College Testing Services will be as follows: CNA Combined Written & Skills Exam - $100; CNA Written Only or Skills Only - $90; QMA - $90; QMA-Insulin - $75; Home Health Aide-Tube Feeding - $75.’ Ivy Tech explains the rise in its own words: ‘Fees for testing have remained the same for several years and the increase is necessary to cover program costs.’ RECIPROCITY IS A FLAT APPLICATION CHARGE, NOT AN EXAM CHARGE: ‘CNA or QMA Out-of-State Reciprocity - $50 if you applied after 9/1/25. Note - An application is required but candidates will not need to test after 9/1/25.’ RETESTS ARE FULL PRICE: ‘You must submit a new payment for each time you retest’ — $100 for both sections, $90 for one. NO-SHOW CHARGES: ‘No show for written exam appointment $15’; ‘No show for skills exam appointment $90’; and the skills no-show fee is paid on a different Ivy Tech site from the application. PAYMENT AND REFUND RULES: ‘All payments are made online during application submission and will only be done by credit/debit card’, ‘Invoicing is not available’, ‘You must cancel at least 48 hours before your test date. If you cancel late, you will have to pay the testing fee again’, and ‘Your payment is good for 90 days. You must either take your test or request a refund within those 90 days.’ NOT SET BY THE STATE: training tuition. The Department publishes an approved-program list by county and city but no price; neither the Department nor Ivy Tech publishes a tuition figure, and no Indiana source read on 2026-08-16 states who bears the cost of Indiana nurse aide training.

Exam

TWO PARTS, BOTH REQUIRED. The Department: ‘To become a CNA in Indiana, you must first complete a 75-hour training program. After completing the training program, you must complete and pass a written test and a skills test.’ WRITTEN: ‘The written test includes 100 multiple-choice questions and must be completed with a score of at least 80 correct answers (80%); up to four attempts of the written test are allowed within a two-year period.’ Ivy Tech adds the time and the language option: ‘90 minutes allowed for the written exam’, ‘You may miss no more than 20 questions for a passing grade of 80%’, and ’the written test is available in Spanish. When scheduling, choose the exam name “CNA Certified Nurse Aide Written Exam Spanish Version”.’ SKILLS: ‘The skills test requires the demonstration of proper hand hygiene, initial and final steps, and four skills that are selected at random; competency must be demonstrated to an evaluator. Up to four attempts of the skills test are allowed within a two-year period.’ Ivy Tech states that ‘The skills exam is untimed.’ WHERE: ‘You can take your CNA skills test at your training program… You can also ask to take the skills test at a Community Day event held at your local Ivy Tech campus’, while the written exam is taken at an Ivy Tech testing centre of the candidate’s choosing. RESULTS: same day. ‘Tests are scored at the testing site’, ‘Candidates receive test results at the test site on the day of testing’, ‘Test results are not revealed by phone’, and ‘If the candidate does not pass, documentation will be provided to the candidate stating the test(s) to be retaken and areas of needed study.’ ATTEMPTS — A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO OFFICIAL STATEMENTS, RECORDED BOTH WAYS. The Department’s page applies the four-attempt limit to each test without qualification. The statute applies it only to some routes: ‘An individual described in subsection (b), (c), or (f) may take the state nurse aide competency examination not more than four (4) times in a two (2) year period’ — that is, the nursing-student, graduate-nurse and military routes — ‘If the individual does not pass the state nurse aide competency examination after four (4) attempts in a two (2) year period, the individual must personally appear before the commission before reapplying for certification’ (IC 16-27.5-3-1(h)). Ivy Tech states the general rule the way the Department does: ‘You have four (4) chances to test for CNA or QMA’, and ‘The Certified Health Care Professions Commission requires that any CNA or QMA candidate that does not successfully complete testing within four (4) attempts in a two (2) year period must personally appear before the commission before reapplying for certification.’ AFTER THE EXAM: ‘Once Ivy Tech has submitted the results to the Dept. of Health, allow 8 to 10 weeks to receive your license in the mail. It could take up to 30 days to be added to the Registry.’ A CHANGE ALREADY SCHEDULED: Ivy Tech publishes that ‘Beginning 9/1/26, Emergency Medical Responder and Psychiatric Attendant CNA candidates will be required to take both the written and skills portions of the exam’ — those candidates currently test on one portion.

Renewal & continuing education

EVERY TWO YEARS, FREE, AND THE TEST IS WORK. IC 16-27.5-3-1(j): ‘Certification under this section is valid for two (2) years. The state department may prescribe the manner in which to renew certification.’ The Department states the work condition and the mechanism: ‘To stay active as a CNA in Indiana, you must work at least eight hours in nursing-related duties every two years. Renewal is free and completed through MyLicenseOne; you may print your card here, too.’ NOTICE IS STATUTORY, AND SO IS THE REMEDY IF IT IS LATE: ‘At least ninety (90) days before the date on which an individual’s certification or registration under this article expires, the state department shall provide notice to the individual informing the individual of the expiration date and requirements for renewing’ (IC 16-27.5-1-3(a)); and if that notice is late, an individual who renews ’not later than forty five (45) days after receiving the notice… may not be sanctioned for failing to renew the certification or registration on time’ (IC 16-27.5-1-3(b)). A RENEWAL CAN BE HELD WHILE A COMPLAINT IS INVESTIGATED: the Department may delay renewal for up to 120 days past expiry to investigate an allegation of abuse, neglect, misappropriation or misconduct, must notify the individual and open an investigation, and the commission must hold a hearing before the delay period ends; meanwhile ‘An individual’s certification or registration remains valid under this section until the earlier of: (1) the commission’s determination…; or (2) the individual’s application for renewal is denied’, and if the commission fails to decide in time ’the state department shall renew the individual’s certification or registration’ (IC 16-27.5-1-4). ADDRESS CHANGES ARE A LEGAL DUTY, NOT A COURTESY: ‘A certified nurse aide shall notify the state department of any change in the certified nurse aide’s mailing address or electronic mail address not later than thirty (30) days after the date on which the address changed’ (IC 16-27.5-3-7), which the Department restates as ‘It is your responsibility to update this information within 30 days of a name, address, phone, or email change.’ NO CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE IS REQUIRED, but the statute and the Department describe the renewal condition differently and the difference matters. THE DEPARTMENT names only work: ‘To stay active as a CNA in Indiana, you must work at least eight hours in nursing-related duties every two years.’ No course, no hour count, no provider list appears on any of the Department’s nurse aide pages, and Ivy Tech’s candidate FAQ repeats the Department’s sentence verbatim. THE STATUTE adds a training condition the Department’s pages do not mention: ‘In order to renew a certification described in this section, a certified nurse aide shall complete the inservice training required under 42 CFR 483.95’ (IC 16-27.5-3-1(k)). That federal section is the facility-side training requirement — the training a nursing home must provide its staff — so the practical effect for most aides is that the employer supplies it; but Indiana has written it into the renewal condition itself, which is not the same as the Pennsylvania-style position that in-service hours ‘have no impact on registry renewal.’ Both statements are Indiana’s own and this record states both rather than choosing. FOR CONTRAST, the Qualified Medication Aide credential on the same registry does carry a plain course requirement: ‘Each two-year renewal period requires that QMAs complete six hours of medication-related training to maintain their certification. An additional hour is required if the QMA is insulin-certified.’

How to apply

Applications are handled by Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) — Aide Training, Certification, and Registry program, which maintains the Indiana Aides Registry. Determinations about who qualifies, who is renewed, and what the training curriculum must contain are made by a statutory body: the certified health care professions commission (IC 16-27.5-2-1), which the Department’s own pages call the Certified Healthcare Professions Commission. The competency examination itself is administered by Ivy Tech Community College under the Department. Indiana’s Board of Nursing licenses nurses and has no role in nurse aide certification.. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Indiana

Indiana Department of Health, through the state’s MyLicenseOne licensing system (the same system the Department uses for CNA renewal). Ivy Tech’s candidate FAQ labels the same lookup ‘Indiana Professional Licensing Agency’. publishes a public license search , searchable by aide’s name (the only search key the Department names). It covers Indiana Aides Registry entries — certified nurse aides, qualified medication aides and home health aides in one place. The Department describes it in one sentence, ‘The Indiana Aides Registry may be searched by the name of an aide to verify status’, and publishes what the statuses mean: ACTIVE — ’the aide has met all requirements and is eligible to be employed as an aide in Indiana’; EXPIRED — ’the aide is ineligible to be employed until they renew their certification’; FINDING — ’the aide is prohibited from working as a CNA, QMA, or HHA.’ TWO THINGS A READER SHOULD KNOW BEFORE CLICKING. First, the search-by list above is short because it is only what the Department states: the lookup itself refused to open as of August 16, 2026, returning a security-check page instead of the search form, so nothing here is copied from the live form and no additional search field is claimed. Second, a newly certified aide will not appear at once — ‘It could take up to 30 days to be added to the Registry’ after the results reach the Department, and if a name is still missing after two weeks the candidate is told to email the testing office with the test date and pass letter. Employers have a standing duty to use it: ‘Before hiring an aide, healthcare organizations must check the registry to verify the aide’s credentials and ensure that there are no issues reported against them.’ The Department also runs a notification list for new findings, which anyone may join through its help-desk ticket system.

Records come from Indiana Department of Health, through the state’s MyLicenseOne licensing system (the same system the Department uses for CNA renewal). Ivy Tech’s candidate FAQ labels the same lookup ‘Indiana Professional Licensing Agency’.’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.