CNA Requirements in Massachusetts: 75-Hour Training

How to become a CNA in Massachusetts: a 75-hour state training minimum, the Headmaster competency exam — verified from Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).

Source-verified

Requirements below are drawn from Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Bureau of Health Professions Licensure - Nurse Aide Registry Program. The Department describes its own role in one sentence: 'The Nurse Aide Registry Program reviews training and competency evaluation programs, oversees the Massachusetts state competency evaluation, and maintains a registry of nurse aides,' and adds that it 'oversees the Nurse Aide Registry and all aspects of nurse aide certification in Massachusetts.' NO BOARD OF NURSING IS INVOLVED - the Board of Registration in Nursing licenses nurses; the nurse aide credential sits with the Department under M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J, which directs that 'The department shall, subject to appropriation, establish and maintain a registry of all individuals who have met the federal requirements for competency contained in 42 USC sec. 1396r and have been certified as nurse aides for employment in a facility.' Testing is delivered under contract: 'The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has approved D&S Diversified Technologies, LLP (D&SDT)-HEADMASTER, LLP to provide nurse aide testing and scoring services.' (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 REGISTRY LISTING that Massachusetts calls certification. There is no licensing board and no board-issued licence: the Department of Public Health maintains the Nurse Aide Registry under M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J - 'a registry of all individuals who have met the federal requirements for competency contained in 42 USC sec. 1396r and have been certified as nurse aides for employment in a facility' - and the listing itself is what makes employment lawful, because a facility other than a rest home 'shall only hire or employ ... a nurse aide who is listed in said registry as having demonstrated competency as defined by department regulations.' The Department's contracted testing service states the same endpoint from the candidate's side: 'Upon successful completion of training, passing both the knowledge and skills portions of the competency exam, and meeting federal and/or state requirements, a nurse aide candidate will be listed on the MANAR.' THE REGISTRY IS ALSO THE MISCONDUCT RECORD: it 'includes substantiated findings of nurse aide abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident property, or exploitation involving a nurse aide at a Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) regulated facility', and the statute requires those findings to be disclosed to any employer who inquires, together with 'any statement in the registry relating to the finding or a clear and accurate summary of any such statement'.
The path: Complete a DPH-approved Nurse Aide Training Program, then pass both parts of the Massachusetts competency evaluation, and the listing follows. The Department's instruction is short: 'If you have completed an approved training program and would like to become certified, you must apply to schedule an examination ... To request an application for the Nurse Aide Competency Evaluation Program or to schedule your examination, please visit D&S Diversified Technologies (D&S). Students whose training program has registered them through D&S will receive an email notification to complete test registration.' TIMING TO EXPECT: 'Please allow at least three weeks to receive your test results and for your name to appear on the license verification website,' and 'The Department is not able to share test results with individuals by phone.' Programs are found through the state's own directory - the Department points candidates to its interactive map of Certified Nurse Aide training sites rather than publishing a list in text.
Where training and clinical hours may happen: A training provider must 'employ, or have written arrangements with, a primary instructor', must 'provide, or have written arrangements to provide, appropriate facilities for classroom instruction and for clinical instruction in a level II or III long-term care facility', must use a Department-approved curriculum, and must ensure the required equipment is available (105 CMR 156.210(A)). The Department repeats the clinical-site rule for new programs: 'DPH must approve all clinical sites. For sites to be approved, they must be a level II or level III long-term care facility in good standing.' Approval runs 'for a period of not more than two years', a provider must notify the Department 'at least 30 days in advance of any substantive changes', and must file for renewal 'at least 60 days prior to the expiration of its current approval period' (105 CMR 156.200).
Who may teach, and the class-size limits: The primary instructor must 'Be a registered nurse with current licensure with at least two years' nursing experience, one of which must have been in a level II or level III long-term care facility', and must additionally show teaching capability either through 'at least one year's experience in lesson planning, lesson delivery, student evaluation and remediation in a health care setting' or 'the equivalent of 24 contact hours' of qualifying continuing education, or through a documented consultation arrangement with a qualifying registered nurse plus 24 contact hours of adult education in the first year (105 CMR 156.220). Other health professionals - dieticians, social workers, physical and occupational therapists - 'may teach lessons or modules'. Ratios: 'a minimum of one instructor for every 25 students in a classroom and a minimum of one instructor for every ten students in practice/clinical sessions' (105 CMR 156.230(D)). A 'Contact Hour' is defined as '50 consecutive classroom minutes of instruction'.
The document of completion, and what a facility must accept: 'The training program shall issue to each student who successfully completes the nurse aide training program a documentation of completion in a format specified by the Department,' and 'Facility administrators shall accept the document of completion as proof of meeting the training requirements set forth in 105 CMR 156.000' (105 CMR 156.400). The primary instructor 'shall evaluate each student to determine whether he or she has satisfactorily completed each module of nurse aides training and shall offer remediation for each student as needed' and personally signs and issues that document (105 CMR 156.230(B)-(C)). The document of completion is not the credential - the Registry listing is.
Testing in a language other than English: Massachusetts is unusual in offering the whole examination in four languages, and it says exactly when the choice locks. The Department: 'As of December 2, 2024, the Massachusetts nurse aide certification exam is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Haitian Creole,' with details 'in the Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook available on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide page of the D&S website.' The rule in that handbook: once 'you begun taking either exam (knowledge and skills) in Chinese, Haitian Creole or Spanish, you cannot switch languages (revert to English).' An alternate language may be chosen if 'You have not begun the testing process' - a no-show does not count as an attempt - or if 'You have started testing but failed both the knowledge and the skills components'; it may not be chosen once you have passed either portion. The Department leaves the workplace question to employers: 'Facilities should follow their policies regarding employee screening and training when hiring CNAs who have passed the exam in a language other than English.'
What the Department does NOT publish as a requirement: No minimum age, no education level, no criminal background check, no immunisation or physical examination and no citizenship or residency condition appears anywhere in 105 CMR 156.000, on the Department's Nurse Aide Registry pages, or in the state-linked candidate handbook - all searched on 2026-08-16. What Massachusetts does control at the hiring end is the Registry itself: employers must check it before hiring, and no facility, home health agency, homemaker agency or hospice program 'shall hire or employ an individual whose name appears in the Registry with a finding or adjudicated finding of patient or resident abuse, neglect, mistreatment or misappropriation of patient or resident property'. Separately, employers keep 'the timestamped pdfs from their Check-a-License pre-employment searches as documentation of compliance ... in the employee's personnel file with the aide's CORI check' - the criminal records check is an employer step under other law, not a condition of Registry listing.

Legal basis

Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Bureau of Health Professions Licensure - Nurse Aide Registry Program. The Department describes its own role in one sentence: ‘The Nurse Aide Registry Program reviews training and competency evaluation programs, oversees the Massachusetts state competency evaluation, and maintains a registry of nurse aides,’ and adds that it ‘oversees the Nurse Aide Registry and all aspects of nurse aide certification in Massachusetts.’ NO BOARD OF NURSING IS INVOLVED - the Board of Registration in Nursing licenses nurses; the nurse aide credential sits with the Department under M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J, which directs that ‘The department shall, subject to appropriation, establish and maintain a registry of all individuals who have met the federal requirements for competency contained in 42 USC sec. 1396r and have been certified as nurse aides for employment in a facility.’ Testing is delivered under contract: ‘The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has approved D&S Diversified Technologies, LLP (D&SDT)-HEADMASTER, LLP to provide nurse aide testing and scoring services.’ administers certified nursing assistant licensing in Massachusetts. 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

Massachusetts uses CERTIFIED NURSE AIDE, abbreviated CNA, and the certification number is formatted with that prefix - the Department’s search instruction is to enter ’the certification number (e.g. CNA-12345)’. The register is the MASSACHUSETTS NURSE AIDE REGISTRY, abbreviated MANAR in the state-linked candidate handbook. ‘Certified nursing assistant’ is the national vernacular for the same credential; Massachusetts regulation and statute say ’nurse aide’ throughout, and the Department’s public pages mix ‘certified nurse aide’ and ‘CNA’. ‘Massachusetts CNA license’ is a folk term - no board issues a nurse aide licence here, and the credential is a Registry listing maintained by the Department of Public Health. TERMS THAT ARE NOT THIS CREDENTIAL. A HOME HEALTH AIDE and a HOMEMAKER are separate Massachusetts roles; the Registry carries findings against them but they are not CNAs, and the Department warns employers that its verification tool ‘does not include home health aides unless findings of abuse, neglect or misappropriation have been substantiated by DPH’. A PERSONAL CARE HOMEMAKER is another direct-care role, trained under the state’s PHCAST program, which the Department’s April 2026 memo names as the model its new CNA framework builds on. A CERTIFIED MEDICATION AIDE is listed by the Department as a separate topic under the same program and is not covered here. RESPONSIBLE PERSONS, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and volunteers are all expressly outside the regulation’s definition of a nurse aide. TWO SYSTEM NAMES a candidate will meet and should not confuse: TMU, the TestMaster Universe scheduling and results system run by the Department’s testing contractor at mc.tmutest.com, and the HEALTH PROFESSION LICENSING SYSTEM at healthprofessionlicensing.mass.gov, which is the Department’s own portal for renewal, personal-information changes and training-program applications. Verification is a third address again.

License types & fees

Type	Notes	Who Its For
Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) - listing on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry	Massachusetts issues no card from a licensing board - what you get is a Registry listing with a certification number in the form CNA-12345, and the Department's contracted testing service describes the endpoint as being 'identified and listed on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry'. The statute makes the listing the hiring condition: 'A facility, other than a rest home, shall only hire or employ on a paid, unpaid, temporary or permanent basis, a nurse aide who is listed in said registry as having demonstrated competency as defined by department regulations' (M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J). The state-linked candidate handbook defines the Registry the same way: it 'lists the names of nurse aides who, through training, testing, and experience, meet federal and/or state requirements to work as nurse aides in Massachusetts.'	A person who wants to work as a nurse aide in a Massachusetts long-term care facility, and more broadly anyone an employer must verify against the Registry.
Working before training or certification is complete - two separate employer windows, 90 days and four months	Massachusetts runs two clocks at once and states them from the employer's side. TRAINING: 'Any long-term care facility that hires a nurse aide shall ensure the nurse aide completes the nurse aide training within 90 days of commencing employment' unless the aide is already certified or exempt (105 CMR 156.100(A)). CERTIFICATION: 'A long-term care facility shall not continue to employ any individual as a nurse aide for more than four months after commencing employment unless the facility verifies through the Registry that the individual has current certification as a nurse aide' (105 CMR 156.100(B)). The Department restates both for employers and adds a staffing limit: 'You can employ a Nurse Aide who has not yet completed training for no more than 90 days. The Nurse Aide must not be used on a temporary, per diem, leased, or any basis other than a permanent employee. You can employ a Nurse Aide who has not yet taken and passed the CNA test for no more than 4 months.' Trainees also cannot be counted in staffing ratios for tasks they have not yet been trained and evaluated on (105 CMR 156.110).	A person a long-term care facility has already hired.
Waiver of the training requirement - a route to the examination without a Massachusetts training program	The Department states the route and where the qualifications live: 'Specific waiver provisions are available for applicants that can verify they meet the qualifications listed at 105 CMR 156.100. The application to request a Nurse Aide Training Waiver to take the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Competency Evaluation is available on the D&S Diversified Technologies (D&S) website.' The categories in that regulation are an individual who '(a) ... is currently certified as a nurse aide in another state, as verified through that state's nurse aide registry; (b) ... has successfully completed a nurse aide training program in another state that has been approved by that state under 42 CFR 483.151; or (c) ... has successfully completed a clinical course in an approved school of nursing, in accordance with 244 CMR 6.00 ..., which included hands on care skills as specified in the minimum standard curriculum.' A waiver removes the training requirement, not the examination. Employers are warned the timing is at their risk: 'You may employ the Nurse Aide, who qualifies and has applied for a waiver, for no more than 4 months. Please note that you would be hiring under risk, as we cannot guarantee the approval of waiver within the 4 month period.'	Someone whose qualifications already match one of the categories the regulation recognises.

Who does NOT need this license — exemptions

Massachusetts writes its carve-outs into the definition of a nurse aide and into the facility’s duties rather than as a list of exempt people. (1) WHO IS NOT A NURSE AIDE AT ALL. The regulation defines the term broadly and then removes four groups: ‘Nurse Aide. Any individual who provides nursing care under the supervision of a nurse in a long-term care facility. Nurse Aide includes permanent, temporary, full-time and part-time personnel employed by a long-term care facility and temporary agency personnel employed by a long-term care facility. Nurse aide excludes individuals employed as responsible persons as defined in 105 CMR 150.001: Definitions, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and volunteers’ (105 CMR 156.020). VOLUNTEERS are excluded by definition - that is the closest Massachusetts comes to an unpaid-caregiver exemption in this chapter. (2) SCOPE OF THE CHAPTER. 105 CMR 156.000 ‘applies to all long-term care facilities licensed pursuant to 105 CMR 153.000 … that employ nurse aides, all nurse aides working in long-term care facilities, and all nurse aide training programs.’ The Registry’s reach is wider than the training chapter’s, because the statute obliges ‘All facilities, home health agencies and homemaker agencies’ to check it before hiring, and the Registry carries findings against home health aides and homemakers as well as nurse aides. (3) THE TIME-LIMITED WINDOWS, which are the practical exemptions: 90 days to finish training after hire, four months to be certified, four months while a training waiver is pending, and four months while a reciprocity application is pending - none of them renewable, and the last two at the employer’s risk. (4) THE THREE WAIVER CATEGORIES that excuse the Massachusetts training program - current certification in another state, an out-of-state program approved under 42 CFR 483.151, or a clinical course in an approved school of nursing that included the hands-on care skills in the minimum standard curriculum (105 CMR 156.100(A)(2)). None of them excuses the examination. (5) THE ABSOLUTE BARS, which run the other way. ‘No facility, home health agency, homemaker agency or hospice program shall hire or employ an individual whose name appears in the Registry with a finding or adjudicated finding of patient or resident abuse, neglect, mistreatment or misappropriation of patient or resident property, or, if a sanction was imposed upon that individual, such individual may not be hired or employed until the terms of such sanction have been fulfilled,’ and separately no such employer shall hire anyone ‘found guilty of, or pleaded guilty or nolo contendere to, or admitted to sufficient facts to support a guilty finding of’ the same conduct in a court of law. NOT COVERED BY THIS RECORD: the Massachusetts Home Health Aide and Homemaker credentials, which the Registry touches only through misconduct findings; the Personal Care Homemaker; and the Certified Medication Aide, which the Department lists as a separate topic under the same program.

Fees

NO STATE FEE FOR THE REGISTRY LISTING OR FOR RENEWAL is published anywhere in 105 CMR 156.000 or on the Department’s Nurse Aide Registry pages, and none was found as of August 16, 2026. What a candidate pays is the TESTING fee, and it goes to the Department’s contracted testing service, not to the Commonwealth. THE PUBLISHED TESTING PRICES, from the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Candidate Handbook the Department links (the May 2026 edition, Version 7.0): knowledge exam $30.00, skill exam $70.00, both together $100.00. The audio version of the knowledge exam adds $10 - the handbook shows the arithmetic itself, ‘$30.00 Knowledge Exam fee + $10.00 for the Audio Version = $40.00’. Retakes are priced the same per component: the knowledge retake table covers ‘2nd, 3rd & 4th Attempt(s)’. MANY CANDIDATES PAY NOTHING because the school already did: ‘Before scheduling a test, verify with your instructor whether the training program has already prepaid for it.’ TWO CHARGES THAT CATCH PEOPLE OUT. REFUNDS: a timely request ‘qualif[ies] for a full refund of any testing fees paid minus a $35 refund processing fee’, requests must be made within 30 days of payment, and the deadline runs to the close of business one full business day before the event - miss it, or arrive late, or arrive out of clinical attire, and you are a no-show with the fee forfeited. TEST REVIEW: ‘There is a $25 non-refundable test review deposit fee’, refunded only ‘If, after investigation, the review finding is in your favor.’ TUITION for the training program is set by each approved provider and is not published by the Department. No fee is stated for the training waiver application or for the reciprocity application in any Massachusetts source read for this record, and none is asserted here.

Exam

Two parts, both required: a multiple-choice knowledge exam and a hands-on skill exam observed by a registered nurse. The state-linked handbook: ‘The examination has two parts: a multiple-choice knowledge test and a skill test. Candidates must pass both parts of the exam and meet all other requirements of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) to be identified and listed on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry.’ KNOWLEDGE EXAM - 60 questions, 60 minutes: ‘The Knowledge Exam consists of 60 multiple-choice questions,’ and ‘You will have a maximum of sixty (60) minutes to complete the 60-question knowledge exam.’ The published Massachusetts blueprint distributes those 60 questions across twelve subject areas: Role and Responsibility 9, Basic Nursing Skills 8, Disease Process 7, Resident Rights 6, Safety 6, Communication 5, Infection Control 4, Mental Health 4, Personal Care 4, Care Impaired 3, Aging Process and Restorative Care 2, and Data Collection 2. An AUDIO version reads the questions aloud while the candidate reads along; it must be requested before the testing fee is paid and costs $10 more. A REMOTELY PROCTORED knowledge exam is available and requires two devices, a computer and a smartphone joined to a video link at least 20 minutes before the start. SKILL EXAM - three or four tasks in 40 minutes: ‘Each of your randomly selected three (3) or four (4) tasks will have scenarios associated with them. The scenarios will be read to you by the RN Test Observer immediately before you are asked to do each task,’ and ‘You will be allowed forty (40) minutes to complete your three or four tasks,’ with a warning timer at 15 minutes remaining. One mandatory task is assigned and the rest are drawn at random: ‘You will also receive an additional two (2) or three (3) randomly selected tasks from the Skill Task listing.’ Hand hygiene is scored inside the mandatory task rather than as a separate item: ‘Handwashing with soap and water is required for each mandatory task and must be demonstrated at the end of each.’ Steps may be corrected during the allotted time, and ‘The skill task steps are not order dependent.’ TEST-DAY CONDITIONS ARE STRICT AND FORFEIT FEES: candidates must be in the waiting area 20 minutes before the start time or be recorded a no-show with fees lost; full clinical attire - scrubs and closed-toed shoes - is required for in-person events, and ‘You will not be admitted for testing if you are not wearing clinical attire and the appropriate shoes’; smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness monitors and Bluetooth devices are barred, though a standard watch with a second hand is allowed; and identification must be an original, non-expired, signature-bearing United States government-issued photo ID, with digital wallet versions expressly rejected. Candidates taking both components on-site should ‘Plan to be at the test site for up to five (5) hours’. ATTEMPTS - FOUR ON THE KNOWLEDGE TEST, THREE ON THE SKILLS TEST. The Department states it plainly: ‘You may take the knowledge portion of the test up to 4 times. You may take the clinical portion of the test up to 3 times.’ The handbook states the consequence: ‘If you fail the knowledge component four (4) times or the skills component three (3) times, you must complete another Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) approved training program to be eligible to schedule testing.’ NO PASSING SCORE for either component is published in any Massachusetts source read for this record - the regulation, the Department’s pages and the state-linked candidate handbook were all searched on 2026-08-16.

Renewal & continuing education

Every 24 months, and it turns on eight hours of paid work rather than on a course or a fee. The state-linked handbook states the rule: ‘To maintain your eligibility to work, you must renew it every 24 months. To be eligible to renew, you must work for pay as a nurse aide performing nursing or nursing-related services at least eight (8) consecutive hours during the previous 24 months. Nurse aides with misconduct restrictions on the Registry are not eligible for renewal.’ THE WORD CONSECUTIVE IS THE HANDBOOK’S, NOT THE DEPARTMENT’S, and the two are recorded rather than reconciled: on the handbook’s wording Massachusetts asks for eight consecutive hours rather than eight hours accumulated, while the Department’s own renewal page states the same test without the word. THE DEPARTMENT’S OWN INSTRUCTION: ‘If your certification is about to expire, and you have worked for pay as a nurse aide for at least eight hours performing nursing-related duties within the past two years, complete the Renewal Application process online on the Department of Public Health Licensing System.’ WHERE RENEWAL HAPPENS CHANGED IN LATE 2023 and the Department flags it twice: ‘Beginning December 4, 2023, CNAs who are eligible to renew must use the new Health Profession Licensing System to renew their certification,’ with a how-to video and a user guide published alongside it. Personal-information changes moved to the same system: ‘updating of CNA personal information (name, address, etc.) should be completed through the new Health Profession Licensing System.’ NO CONTINUING EDUCATION and no renewal fee appear in any Massachusetts source read for this record. AFTER RESULTS OR A RENEWAL, ALLOW LAG: ‘If you have just completed the Nurse Aide Certification Exam, please allow at least three weeks to receive your test results and for your information to be updated on the license verification website.’ NO CONTINUING EDUCATION IS REQUIRED to renew a Massachusetts CNA listing. Renewal turns on eight consecutive hours of paid nurse aide work in the previous 24 months and nothing else; no course, contact-hour or in-service requirement for the individual appears in 105 CMR 156.000, on the Department’s Nurse Aide Registry Program, become-a-CNA, renewal, employer or training-program pages, or in the state-linked candidate handbook - all searched on 2026-08-16. TWO OBLIGATIONS THAT SIT ON SOMEONE ELSE. First, the facility owns any training beyond the state minimum: ‘Facilities requiring nurse aides to perform tasks not included in the minimum standard curriculum shall ensure nurse aides are trained to perform these tasks and have successfully demonstrated their ability to perform these tasks’ (105 CMR 156.300(C)), and ‘The facility shall ensure nurse aides perform only those tasks for which they have been trained and for which they have successfully demonstrated their ability to correctly perform these tasks’ (105 CMR 156.100(D)). Second, the 24 contact hours that appear in the regulation belong to INSTRUCTORS, not to aides - they are one of the ways a primary instructor may show teaching capability (105 CMR 156.220(A)(2)). The Department’s April 2026 curriculum memo confirms the negative for existing aides in terms: ‘CNAs who are currently in good standing on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry will not be required to complete additional training.’

How to apply

Applications are handled by Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Bureau of Health Professions Licensure - Nurse Aide Registry Program. The Department describes its own role in one sentence: ‘The Nurse Aide Registry Program reviews training and competency evaluation programs, oversees the Massachusetts state competency evaluation, and maintains a registry of nurse aides,’ and adds that it ‘oversees the Nurse Aide Registry and all aspects of nurse aide certification in Massachusetts.’ NO BOARD OF NURSING IS INVOLVED - the Board of Registration in Nursing licenses nurses; the nurse aide credential sits with the Department under M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J, which directs that ‘The department shall, subject to appropriation, establish and maintain a registry of all individuals who have met the federal requirements for competency contained in 42 USC sec. 1396r and have been certified as nurse aides for employment in a facility.’ Testing is delivered under contract: ‘The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has approved D&S Diversified Technologies, LLP (D&SDT)-HEADMASTER, LLP to provide nurse aide testing and scoring services.’. Start at the official application page .

Verify a license in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Health Professions Licensure (the Department links it as the ‘Massachusetts Health Professions License Verification website’ and calls it Check-A-License) publishes a public license search , searchable by License Board (select Nurse Aide Registry), License Type (select Certified Nurse Aide), first and last name or certification number in the form CNA-12345. It covers Massachusetts certified nurse aide listings, alongside the Department’s other health professions. The Department publishes step-by-step instructions rather than a field list, and they are the source of the search-by entries above: ‘Go to the License Verification site. You do not need a username or password to access the License Verification website. Enter Nurse Aide Registry as “License Board” and Certified Nurse Aide as “License Type”. Enter the first and last name and/or the certification number (e.g. CNA-12345) into the search box labeled “License Number”. Click the search button.’ IT ALSO RETURNS THE WHOLE REGISTER: leaving the name and number blank and searching on the two dropdowns alone is the Department’s published method to ‘Obtain a List of All Certified Nurse Aides’. WHAT THE STATUSES MEAN, in the Department’s words to employers: ‘A positive search showing a CNA with status of “Current” means the employer can proceed with hiring. A positive search of CNA with status of “Finding”, “Case Pending”, “Expired” “Inactive” means the employer cannot proceed with hiring.’ For a Finding or a Case Pending the employer ‘must contact the Nurse Aide Registry and/or submit a Public Records Request’, and where two people share a name the Registry will confirm identity by Social Security number over the phone. Employers are told to keep ’the timestamped pdfs from their Check-a-License pre-employment searches as documentation of compliance.’ TWO THINGS A READER SHOULD EXPECT. First, the page assembles itself in your browser after it loads, so a result has no web address of its own and cannot be bookmarked, emailed or cited - you have to run the search yourself each time, and an automated watch on this address can only ever see an empty shell. Second, a new result takes time to appear: ‘please allow at least three weeks to receive your test results and for your information to be updated on the license verification website.’.

Records come from Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Health Professions Licensure (the Department links it as the ‘Massachusetts Health Professions License Verification website’ and calls it Check-A-License)’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 Massachusetts CNA a licence, a certification, or a registry listing?

A registry listing that the state calls certification. No licensing board is involved - the Department of Public Health maintains the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry under M.G.L. c. 111, sec. 72J, and the listing is what makes employment lawful: a facility other than a rest home ‘shall only hire or employ … a nurse aide who is listed in said registry as having demonstrated competency as defined by department regulations.’ Your certification number is formatted CNA-12345. The document of completion your training program gives you is not the credential; the Registry listing is.

How many hours of CNA training does Massachusetts require?

75 hours by regulation today - ‘(A) Each nurse aides training course shall be a minimum of 75 hours and shall include all modules of the minimum standard curriculum as prescribed in guidelines from the Department’ (105 CMR 156.300) - with an increase announced but not yet written into that regulation. A DPH memo to training programs dated April 6, 2026 states that ‘DPH will be increasing the required minimum training hours from the federal standard of 75 hours to 87 hours, including 21 hours of supervised practical training,’ with revised exams expected in early 2027 and further guidance through 2026. Ask your program which figure it is built to. Existing CNAs in good standing ‘will not be required to complete additional training.’

Who gives the Massachusetts CNA exam?

D&S Diversified Technologies, LLP - Headmaster, LLP, under contract to the Department: ‘The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has approved D&S Diversified Technologies, LLP (D&SDT)-HEADMASTER, LLP to provide nurse aide testing and scoring services.’ Massachusetts does not use the NNAAP - the questions come from a DPH-approved Massachusetts test plan. Scheduling, results, reciprocity applications and training-waiver applications all run through the vendor; renewal and personal-information changes run through the Department’s own Health Profession Licensing System.

What is on the Massachusetts CNA exam?

Two parts. The knowledge exam is 60 multiple-choice questions with ‘a maximum of sixty (60) minutes’ to complete it, drawn across twelve subject areas - the largest blocks are Role and Responsibility (9 questions), Basic Nursing Skills (8), Disease Process (7), Resident Rights (6) and Safety (6). The skill exam is ’three (3) or four (4) tasks’ - one mandatory plus two or three drawn at random - in 40 minutes, watched by an RN Test Observer who reads you a scenario before each task; ‘Handwashing with soap and water is required for each mandatory task and must be demonstrated at the end of each.’ Plan for up to five hours on site if you take both the same day. No passing score is published.

How many times can you take the Massachusetts CNA exam?

Four attempts at the knowledge test and three at the skills test. The Department states it directly: ‘You may take the knowledge portion of the test up to 4 times. You may take the clinical portion of the test up to 3 times.’ Run out and you start over: ‘If you fail the knowledge component four (4) times or the skills component three (3) times, you must complete another Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) approved training program to be eligible to schedule testing.’

Can you take the Massachusetts CNA exam in a language other than English?

Yes, in four languages. ‘As of December 2, 2024, the Massachusetts nurse aide certification exam is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Haitian Creole.’ The choice locks once you start: after beginning either component in Chinese, Haitian Creole or Spanish ‘you cannot switch languages (revert to English).’ You may choose an alternate language if you have not begun testing - a no-show does not count as an attempt - or if you have started and failed BOTH components; you may not if you have already passed either one. An audio version of the English knowledge exam is also available for an extra $10 and must be requested before you pay.

What does it cost to become a CNA in Massachusetts?

No state fee for the Registry listing or renewal is published anywhere in the regulation or on the Department’s pages. What you pay is testing, to the Department’s contracted testing service: $30 for the knowledge exam, $70 for the skill exam, $100 for both, plus $10 if you want the audio version of the knowledge exam. Many candidates pay nothing because the school prepaid - ‘Before scheduling a test, verify with your instructor whether the training program has already prepaid for it.’ Two charges catch people out: a refund is ‘a full refund of any testing fees paid minus a $35 refund processing fee’, and a test review costs a ‘$25 non-refundable test review deposit fee’ unless the review goes your way. Tuition is set by each approved program.

How do you renew a Massachusetts CNA certification?

Every 24 months, on the strength of eight hours of paid work - but the two official statements of the test differ by one word, and this record does not resolve them. The state-linked candidate handbook says ‘To be eligible to renew, you must work for pay as a nurse aide performing nursing or nursing-related services at least eight (8) consecutive hours during the previous 24 months.’ The Department’s own renewal page, which is where the application is actually filed, states the same test without the word consecutive: ‘If your certification is about to expire, and you have worked for pay as a nurse aide for at least eight hours performing nursing-related duties within the past two years, complete the Renewal Application process online on the Department of Public Health Licensing System.’ Since December 4, 2023 renewal is filed online through the Department’s Health Profession Licensing System, and personal-information changes go through the same system. There is no continuing education requirement and no published renewal fee. Aides ‘with misconduct restrictions on the Registry are not eligible for renewal.’

What happens if a Massachusetts CNA certification expires?

It depends entirely on whether you kept working. The Department: ‘If your nurse aide certification has expired, you may be able to renew your certification through your work experience. In order to be eligible, you must be currently employed as a nurse aide and have worked from before your certification expired to the present with no break in employment. If you are not currently employed or had a break in employment, you may need to retake the nurse aide certification test.’ The regulation sets the outer limit: someone whose certification lapsed and who has not been employed as a nurse aide or licensed nurse at a long-term care facility or temporary nursing agency ‘at some point in the two years prior to re-commencing employment … shall be considered a new employee, and is required to repeat training and obtain certification.’

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

Yes, briefly, and two clocks run at once. A long-term care facility ‘shall ensure the nurse aide completes the nurse aide training within 90 days of commencing employment’, and ‘shall not continue to employ any individual as a nurse aide for more than four months after commencing employment unless the facility verifies through the Registry that the individual has current certification.’ The Department adds that such an aide ‘must not be used on a temporary, per diem, leased, or any basis other than a permanent employee.’ The same four-month limit covers someone waiting on a training waiver or a reciprocity application - and the Department warns employers that in those cases ‘you would be hiring under risk, as we cannot guarantee the approval … within the 4 month period.’

Can a CNA certified in another state work in Massachusetts?

Through reciprocity, if three things are true: you are ‘certified in another state’, your certification is ‘current and in good standing’, and you have ’never been certified in Massachusetts.’ That last condition rules out returning Massachusetts CNAs, who go through the expired-certification route instead. Since December 4, 2023 the reciprocity application is filed with the Department’s testing contractor rather than with the Department, and applications ’typically take 15 days to process.’ If reciprocity does not fit, a training waiver may - it excuses the Massachusetts training program (not the exam) for someone currently certified elsewhere, someone who finished an out-of-state program approved under 42 CFR 483.151, or someone who completed a clinical course in an approved school of nursing that covered the hands-on care skills in the minimum standard curriculum.

Is continuing education required for a Massachusetts CNA?

No. Renewal turns on eight consecutive hours of paid nurse aide work in the previous 24 months and nothing else - no course requirement for the individual appears in 105 CMR 156.000, on any Department nurse aide page, or in the state-linked candidate handbook. The Department is explicit that it does not even approve CNA workshop credit: ‘DPH does not approve certification or continuing education units (CEUs) for educational CNA workshops.’ The training that does exist beyond the state minimum is the facility’s duty, for tasks the facility asks a CNA to perform that the minimum standard curriculum does not cover.

How do you check whether someone is on the Massachusetts Nurse Aide Registry?

Through the Department’s Check-A-License site, and the Department publishes the exact steps: ‘Enter Nurse Aide Registry as “License Board” and Certified Nurse Aide as “License Type”. Enter the first and last name and/or the certification number (e.g. CNA-12345)’. Leaving the name and number blank returns the whole list of certified nurse aides. For employers, only one status clears a hire: ‘A positive search showing a CNA with status of “Current” means the employer can proceed with hiring. A positive search of CNA with status of “Finding”, “Case Pending”, “Expired” “Inactive” means the employer cannot proceed with hiring.’ Allow at least three weeks after an exam for a new listing to appear.

See every license and certification LicensingAtlas covers in Massachusetts.

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.