Vermont CNA Training - Program Classes

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Vermont licenses nurse aides as Licensed Nursing Assistants (LNAs): you complete a training program of at least 75 clock hours, including 16 hours of supervised practical training, approved by the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, pass the written and skills exams, and get your LNA license from the Office of Professional Regulation’s Board of Nursing. Your program must be completed within two years of your license application. Licenses run for two years, and renewal requires at least 50 days (400 hours) of work in the two years before you apply.

Vermont CNA requirements at a glance

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Free CNA training in Vermont

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 Vermont

  • 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.

Two agencies split the work in Vermont. DAIL approves nursing assistant education programs, and its Division of Licensing and Protection posts the approved-program list, dated Oct. 6, 2026. OPR’s Board of Nursing issues the LNA license.

The Vermont CNA exam

OPR’s LNA page sends you to Excel Testing Service for exam information. Once OPR has received and reviewed your application and approved your education, it issues a formal authorization to take the written and skills exams. Those February 2026 instructions call the tests the national Nurse Aide Assessment Program (NNAAP) exams, while Excel Testing’s Vermont guide is dated 2023, so confirm the format with OPR when you get your authorization.

Excel Testing’s guide describes a written exam of 60 multiple-choice questions, given in English in a group setting, with 90 minutes to finish. You need 70% or higher to pass. If you need the exam read aloud, oral exams are offered on audio CD; tell your test observer in advance. Each question is read twice, and you get a printed copy to follow. For the clinical skills test, you get four randomly selected skills and 30 minutes to fully perform them, not simulate them, one candidate at a time with a test observer. Missing four or more non-critical steps fails the skills test. Both parts are given the same day.

If you fail a part, you can retake it for a fee, no sooner than 1 day after your previous test. If you haven’t passed the LNA exams after three attempts, you must repeat an approved nursing assistant education program.

The Vermont nurse aide registry and renewal

Vermont’s Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) Board of Nursing licenses LNAs, and licenses are valid for fixed two-year periods. Employers and the public can check a license in OPR’s Find a Professional search, which shows licensing and disciplinary information along with education, training and exam history; Board rules treat the search as primary source verification of license status and expiration.

To renew, you must show at least 50 days (400 hours) of work in the two years before you apply, as a nurse assistant or in a role that reinforces LNA training and skills, through a job description or other employer verification. Renewal opens six weeks before your expiration date, and you renew through OPR’s Online Services System. You upload proof of hours only if you’re audited or worked in a non-LNA role. If you don’t meet the work requirement and your license has been lapsed for fewer than five years, you must pass the LNA skills and written exams to renew. At five years or more, you repeat an education program and the exams.

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Moving to Vermont with a CNA from another state

Vermont licenses out-of-state aides by endorsement, and you apply online with OPR. If you have three or more years of full-time licensed practice as an LNA, LPN, RN or APRN, in good standing, in a U.S. jurisdiction outside Vermont, you may qualify for Fast Track Endorsement, with verification of continuous licensure for those three years. Otherwise, standard endorsement requires that you be licensed or certified as a nursing assistant by another state, complete a federal criminal background check, and show at least 50 days (400 hours) of nurse assistant work in the two years before you apply, with license verification from your original and most recent states. Neither route lists an exam.

Colleges in Vermont that reported CNA completions

No institution in Vermont reported nursing assistant completions (CIP 51.3902) to the federal IPEDS survey for July 2024 to June 2025 (IPEDS 2024–25 Completions, NCES). 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.

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Sources

Last reviewed November 2026.