CNA Certification in Kentucky — Requirements & Fees

Kentucky Board of Nursing (KBN) — which maintains the Kentucky Nurse Aide Registry and issues the State Registered Nurse Aide (SRNA) certification — under an interagency agreement with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Medicaid Services (Kentucky Medicaid), which owns the programme rules. Kentucky splits the work three ways and says so itself: ‘The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) administers the Kentucky Nurse Aide Training Program. Kentucky Medicaid provides oversight, technical assistance, and nurse aide training reimbursement,’ while KBN holds the registry — ‘Kentucky Medicaid, through an interagency agreement with the Kentucky Board of Nursing, is responsible for establishing and maintaining a registry of all nurse aides.’ Abuse investigations belong to a fourth office: the Cabinet’s Office of Inspector General. administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Kentucky. 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

Kentucky’s own term is STATE REGISTERED NURSE AIDE, and it is used as a noun, an acronym and a number: SRNA, and ‘SRNA#’. The Board’s public lookup lists the credential as ‘SRNA Certification’ in the same dropdown as RN, LPN, APRN, CMA I, CMA II and ‘DT Credential’. ‘Certified nursing assistant’ and ‘CNA’ are what the public says and what the Board itself reaches for when explaining the role — ‘State Registered Nurse Aides (SRNAs) are nursing assistants who have met the requirements set by their state’s nursing board’ — but Kentucky issues nothing under those names. The regulation and the statute both use the plainer NURSE AIDE, and the training programme has its own initialisms: NAT (nurse aide training) on the Medicaid side and KNAT on the KCTCS side, where a student’s local contact is a ‘KNAT Coordinator’. THE REGISTRY HAS TWO HALVES WITH DIFFERENT NAMES: the Kentucky Nurse Aide Registry (the list of qualified aides) and the nurse aide ABUSE registry (the list of substantiated findings), both maintained by KBN, with investigations run by the Cabinet’s Office of Inspector General. A THIRD REGISTRY IS OFTEN CONFLATED WITH THE SECOND AND IS NOT THE SAME THING: KBN tells facilities to check the ‘Kentucky Adult Caregiver Misconduct Registry’ by Social Security number, but the site behind that link presents itself as the ‘Kentucky Vulnerable Adult Maltreatment Registry’, established under KRS 209.032 — same tool, two names in official use. Finally, distinguish CMA I and CMA II (certified medication aides, separate KBN credentials) and note that Kentucky’s definition of ’nurse aide’ formally includes a medication aide for registry purposes.

License types & fees

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

KENTUCKY’S CARVE-OUTS ARE IN THE DEFINITION AND IN THE FOUR-MONTH ALLOWANCE, NOT IN A SEPARATE EXEMPTION LIST. THREE PEOPLE ARE OUTSIDE THE DEFINITION ALTOGETHER: a licensed health professional (a defined list running from physicians and nurse practitioners through physical, speech and occupational therapists, registered and licensed practical nurses, registered dieticians, and licensed or certified social workers); ‘A volunteer who provides the nursing or nursing-related services without monetary compensation’; and ‘A person who is hired by the resident or family to sit with the resident and who does not perform nursing or nursing-related services’ (907 KAR 1:450, Section 1(4)-(5); the same three exclusions appear at KRS 216.935(6)). Note how narrow the third one is — a private sitter is outside the definition only if they do NOT perform nursing or nursing-related services; a private-duty aide who does perform them is inside it, which is exactly why the Board publishes a notarised Private Duty Form for renewal. THE TIME-LIMITED ALLOWANCE is the four-month rule at Section 2, with its own conditions for the period inside those four months. THE FEDERAL GRANDFATHERING ROUTE is preserved by reference rather than restated: an individual ‘deemed or determined competent in accordance with 42 C.F.R. 483.150(a) and (b)’ satisfies the requirement, and the registry itself must list anyone ‘granted an exception pursuant to 42 C.F.R. 483.150(c).’ Kentucky does not reproduce those federal tests, and neither does this record. TWO EMPLOYMENT BARS RUN ALONGSIDE THE CREDENTIAL and are not exemptions but their opposite: KBN states that ‘902 KAR 20:300 requires that a nursing facility shall not be operated by or employ any person who is listed on the: Nurse aide abuse registry or Caregiver misconduct registry’, and that ‘The Office of Inspector General confirms that facilities need to check both registries for all employees.’ KCTCS separately warns students about a felony bar in its ‘Prohibition Against Employing Certain Felons’ notice — ‘Nurse Aides with certain felonies will be barred from employment’ — the underlying provision was not read on 2026-08-16, so this record names the bar without stating which felonies it reaches. NOT FOUND on 2026-08-16 in any Kentucky source read: any minimum age, any education prerequisite, any language requirement, or any exemption for family caregivers.

Fees

THE STATE CHARGES FOR THE EXAMINATION, AND KCTCS PUBLISHES THE SCHEDULE. ‘Testing Fees as of 7/1/24 — Testing Fees are Non-Refundable. SRNA EXAM: Written $40 (Oral/Audio $55); Skills $95. Secondary students will be charged at the standard pricing structure. Medication Aide Exams: KMA/CMA I $50; CMA II $50.’ So an ordinary candidate taking the written form pays $40 + $95 = $135, and choosing the oral or audio form raises the first figure to $55. NO REGISTRY FEE IS PUBLISHED. The Board of Nursing’s fee regulation, 201 KAR 20:240 (‘Fees for applications and services’), was read in full on 2026-08-16 and contains no nurse aide or SRNA fee at all — its authority and its schedule run to licences under KRS Chapter 314, which is the nursing statute. Neither the Board’s SRNA pages (overview, how to become, renewal, reinstatement, reciprocity, verification) nor 907 KAR 1:450 nor 906 KAR 1:100 states a fee for registry listing, renewal, reinstatement or reciprocity. NO TUITION FIGURE IS SET BY THE STATE: the course is run by an approved provider, and Kentucky publishes no price. KCTCS points students at aid rather than at a price — ‘Need help paying for your nurse aide education? Scholarships may be available sponsored by the Kentucky Lottery! Grab your potential winning ticket and seek out a KCTCS financial aid specialist.’ WHAT KENTUCKY REIMBURSES IS THE FACILITY, NOT THE AIDE, capped at ‘forty-five (45) cents per Medicaid patient day’ — see requirements.

Exam

TWO PARTS, AND YOU CHOOSE THE FORMAT OF ONE OF THEM. ‘The competency examination consists of both a written or oral examination and a skills performance examination’ (KCTCS), and the regulation guarantees the choice: ‘An individual who obtains nurse aide training from an entity identified in Section 5(1)… shall be permitted to choose between a final written or oral competency examination’ (907 KAR 1:450, Section 7(2)(a)). BOTH MUST BE PASSED: ‘An individual shall pass the written or oral competency examination and the skills demonstration for satisfactory completion of the nurse aide training and competency evaluation program’ (Section 7(7)(a)). HOW THE TEST IS BUILT, which few states put in regulation: the examination shall ‘Be developed from a pool of test questions, only a portion of which shall be used in any one (1) competency examination’, shall ‘Use a system that prevents disclosure of both the pool of questions and the individual competency examinations’, and ‘If oral, be read from a prepared text in a neutral manner.’ THE SKILLS PORTION: it ‘shall be: (a) Performed in a facility or laboratory setting comparable to the setting in which the individual shall function as a nurse aide; and (b) Administered by a registered nurse with at least one (1) year’s experience in providing care for the elderly or chronically ill of any age’ (Section 7(3)). ATTEMPTS: the regulation requires the administering agency to tell a candidate who fails ‘Of the areas which the individual did not pass’ and ‘That the individual has at two (2) additional opportunities to take the examination’ (Section 7(8)) — three attempts in total; the sentence as published contains a stray word, and it is quoted here as written rather than tidied. RESULTS: ‘Test results are usually available within 30 days of taking the examination. If less than 30 days have passed since your test date, do not contact KCTCS. If more than 30 days have passed, please call 1-877-528-2748. Test scores will NOT be given out over the phone.’ A GRADE APPEAL EXISTS: ‘A formal process has been established for test takers to appeal their grades on the competency evaluation. Grade appeals should be based on testing irregularities or process violations.’ WHAT KENTUCKY DOES NOT PUBLISH on any page read on 2026-08-16: the number of questions, the time allowed, the passing score, and the number of skills demonstrated. No figure is given here.

Renewal & continuing education

EVERY TWO YEARS, AND THE CLOCK STARTS AT THE EXAM. ‘The state registered nurse aide active status is valid for two years and must be renewed. The date you passed your nurse aide competency examination is the date used for renewal of your SRNA status.’ Kentucky Medicaid states the same rule from the registry side and adds the consequence: ‘The nurse aide registry will renew a nurse aide’s registration at least once every 24 months. Registration will be denied if the nurse aide has not worked eight hours for compensation for 24 consecutive months or longer.’ WHAT RENEWAL ACTUALLY REQUIRES IS PROOF OF WORK: ‘Proof of a minimum of eight hours of employment as a state registered nurse aide performing nursing or nursing-related functions for compensation in each 24-month period is required. Proof of employment can be one of the following: Paycheck Stub; W-2 form from the previous year; Letter from a healthcare facility on official letterhead signed and dated by the appropriate party.’ HOW YOU FILE IT: through the Board’s Nurse Portal — ‘‘Apply for renewal’ will appear next to your SRNA Certification on the Nurse Portal Dashboard’ and ‘The renewal will appear no sooner than 60 days prior to your expiration date.’ YOU WILL NOT BE REMINDED. Since the Board moved to its current licence-management system on March 20, 2023, ‘The Kentucky Nurse Aide Registry will no longer be mailing renewal reminders or certification letters’ — so the aide is responsible for watching the expiry date, which the Board says to check through its own verification portal. A SEPARATE ROUTE EXISTS FOR PRIVATE-DUTY AIDES, because a private employer cannot issue a pay stub on facility letterhead: an SRNA doing private duty nursing ‘must have the person they are caring for or a family member of that individual complete a State Registered Nurse Aide (SRNA) Private Duty Form’, the employer ‘must sign and date the form in front of a notary public’, and the form must list the nursing-related duties performed, the dates of employment, proof of payment for services, and the individual’s or family member’s full name, address and telephone number. NO CONTINUING EDUCATION IS REQUIRED OF THE AIDE TO RENEW. Kentucky’s renewal test is eight hours of paid nursing or nursing-related work in each 24-month period, not coursework — the Board’s renewal page lists only that proof, and no course, hour count or approved-provider list appears anywhere on the Board’s SRNA pages, in 907 KAR 1:450, or in 906 KAR 1:100 (all searched 2026-08-16). THE TWELVE-HOUR FIGURE PEOPLE QUOTE IS A FACILITY DUTY: ‘A nursing facility shall provide and document that at least twelve (12) hours of ongoing staff development training is given annually to each nurse aide who: (1) Is employed by the facility; and (2) Has satisfactorily completed the nurse aide training and competency evaluation program’ (907 KAR 1:450, Section 4). Kentucky Medicaid files that same rule on its own page under the heading ‘How Do I Stay Active?’, which is the likeliest source of the confusion — but the obligation to provide and document it runs to the nursing facility, and the note the department attaches immediately afterwards is the one that governs registry status: registration ‘will be denied if the nurse aide has not worked eight hours for compensation for 24 consecutive months or longer.’

How to apply

Applications are handled by Kentucky Board of Nursing (KBN) — which maintains the Kentucky Nurse Aide Registry and issues the State Registered Nurse Aide (SRNA) certification — under an interagency agreement with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Medicaid Services (Kentucky Medicaid), which owns the programme rules. Kentucky splits the work three ways and says so itself: ‘The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) administers the Kentucky Nurse Aide Training Program. Kentucky Medicaid provides oversight, technical assistance, and nurse aide training reimbursement,’ while KBN holds the registry — ‘Kentucky Medicaid, through an interagency agreement with the Kentucky Board of Nursing, is responsible for establishing and maintaining a registry of all nurse aides.’ Abuse investigations belong to a fourth office: the Cabinet’s Office of Inspector General.. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Kentucky

Kentucky Board of Nursing, on the Nursys platform. The Board notes the change itself: ‘Due to KBN now utilizing Nursys for our Kentucky license database, ALL license types will now show with verification.’ publishes a public license search , searchable by last name and first name, with a License Type of ‘SRNA Certification’ (partial name searches accepted; an option searches maiden or other names), license number, with the License Type selected or NCSBN ID. It covers Every Kentucky Board of Nursing credential in one tool, including SRNA Certification alongside RN, LPN, APRN, CMA I, CMA II and others. The search-by list above was read from the live search form’s own fields and labels on 2026-08-16, not from a description of it. The Board tells facilities what to do with it: ‘Facilities can search by Name, License Number, or NCSBN ID’, and ‘For a more accurate search, select “Search by License Number” or “Search by NCSBN ID”… Once your search generates results, click on View Report next to the individual you are looking up.’ THE ABUSE REGISTRY SHOWS UP HERE TOO, and the Board publishes the exact wording an employer will see: ‘Doe, Jane Is listed on the Kentucky Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Nurse Aide Abuse Registry. For more information, contact the Kentucky OIG, Division of Licensing and Regulation at 502-564-7963.’ THREE THINGS A READER SHOULD KNOW. First, a blank result is not a clean result for everyone: ‘The Kentucky Board of Nursing only has a record of individuals who have or have held a SRNA#’, and the Board adds that in the past ‘when facilities searched the database and received a notice stating an individual was not on the abuse registry, this was only accurate information for those with a SRNA# in the database.’ Second, one lookup is not enough — facilities must also check the Kentucky adult caregiver misconduct registry by Social Security number, and that separate tool puts a letter-entry challenge in front of the search. Third, a search result has no web address of its own, so it cannot be bookmarked or forwarded; the Board directs providers to download the ‘Primary Source Board of Nursing Report Summary form’ for their records, a form it says the Office of the Inspector General has approved. Verification is online only: ‘All verifications must be completed online. Written and mailed verifications are no longer available.’.

Records come from Kentucky Board of Nursing, on the Nursys platform. The Board notes the change itself: ‘Due to KBN now utilizing Nursys for our Kentucky license database, ALL license types will now show with verification.‘’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.