CNA Classes in Jacksonville FL

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To work as a CNA in Jacksonville, you need a Florida certification: complete an approved program with at least 80 hours of classroom and 40 hours of clinical instruction, pass the state competency exam, and get certified by the Florida Board of Nursing. If you finished an approved program within 6 months of applying, you take only the written portion. Florida also lets you qualify by passing the exam without approved training if you have a high school diploma or its equivalent, or are at least 18; in that case you take both the written and skills portions.

Florida CNA requirements at a glance

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Colleges near Jacksonville that train CNAs

No public college in the Jacksonville, FL metro area reported nursing assistant completions (CIP 51.3902) to IPEDS for 2024–25. Many approved CNA programs, such as those run by nursing homes, private training schools and the Red Cross, don’t report to IPEDS, so check the state’s approved-program list too.

Statewide, 48 institutions in Florida reported 3,745 nursing assistant completions for 2024–25. Source: IPEDS 2024–25 Completions, National Center for Education Statistics (provisional release).

Free CNA training in Florida

Federal rules protect nurse aides who train for jobs in nursing homes that take Medicare or Medicaid. If one of those facilities employs you, or has offered you a job, on the day your approved program starts, it can’t charge you for any part of it, including textbooks and required materials. If you pay for a program yourself and a facility hires you, or offers you a job, within 12 months of finishing, the state must reimburse your costs on a pro-rata basis for the time you work there as a nurse aide (42 CFR 483.152(c)). Ask nursing homes near you whether they sponsor students.

What to check before you pay for a CNA program in Florida

  • It’s on the state’s approved list. Only an approved program makes you eligible for the competency exam.
  • Its hours meet the state minimum, including the supervised clinical hours, and it tells you where the clinical training happens.
  • The price is complete: tuition, textbooks, uniform, background check and the exam fee.
  • It explains how you register for the exam and when you can test after you finish.
  • It doesn’t promise 100% online certification. Supervised hands-on training is required, so a course with none can’t lead to certification.

Training is optional in Florida: you can qualify by passing the competency exam if you have a high school diploma or its equivalent, or are at least 18. If you train, choose a program on the Board’s approved list, which shows whether each program is approved or on probation and gives its address, so you can pick out programs near Jacksonville. The Board also posts CNA program performance reports.

The Florida CNA exam

Florida’s CNA exam has a written portion and a skills-demonstration portion, and Prometric administers it. The written test gives you 90 minutes for 60 multiple-choice questions in English; if you have difficulty reading English, you can request an oral or Spanish version, and state law requires an oral exam to be given in place of the written portion on request. The manual skills evaluation has you perform 5 randomly selected nursing assistant skills.

If you completed an approved training program within 6 months of applying, you only have to take and pass the written portion. If you fail the exam in three attempts, you can’t retest until you complete an approved training program.

The Florida nurse aide registry and renewal

The Florida Board of Nursing, within the Department of Health, certifies CNAs. Employers and aides can check a certificate with the Department of Health’s license verification search.

Certification renews every two years in two groups: Group 1 licenses expire May 31, 2027, and Group 2 licenses expire May 31, 2028. To stay on the registry, you must have performed nursing-related services for pay within the last 24 consecutive months, and you must finish 24 hours of in-service training during the two-year cycle, before you submit your renewal application. Once 24 months in a row pass without paid nursing-related work, you can no longer renew; you’d need a new training and competency evaluation program or a new competency evaluation. Renew online; the fee is $55 if you renew before your license expires.

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Moving to Florida with a CNA from another state

Florida certifies out-of-state CNAs through licensure by endorsement, which the Board calls mobile endorsement, and you don’t take the Florida exam. You must hold an active, unencumbered license from another state, the District of Columbia or a U.S. territory in a profession with a similar scope of practice, and you must have actively practiced for at least two years during the four years before you apply. You also can’t have National Practitioner Data Bank reports, pending discipline or discipline in the last 5 years, and you need a Level II background screening with Livescan fingerprints. Ask each state board where you’ve held a license to send Florida a license verification (an online verification that includes disciplinary actions is accepted), then apply online.

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Sources

Last reviewed November 2026.