Registered Nurse (RN) License Renewal in District of Columbia
D.C. RNs renew every 2 years with 24 contact hours of CE, including LGBTQ and public health topics. The District is not a Nurse Licensure Compact member.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 24 hours 24 contact hours per 2-year renewal, and two slices are assigned by law: 2 hours on LGBTQ or cultural competency and 3 hours on public health (HIV/AIDS or the Director's designated topics). Both count within the 24, not on top of it. |
| Renewal fee | $145.00 |
| Mandatory CE topics | LGBTQ or cultural competency (2 of the 24 hours, every renewal), Public health, HIV/AIDS or the Director's designated topics (3 of the 24 hours, every renewal) |
| Licensing board | District of Columbia Board of Nursing (DC Health) |
Sourced from District of Columbia Board of Nursing (DC Health), verified July 25, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
The District asks for 24 contact hours, and five of them are spoken for by law. That’s the detail to plan around: D.C. is one of the few jurisdictions that mandates specific CE subjects a nurse can’t substitute away, and it sits in a metro area where its neighbors all belong to a compact that D.C. doesn’t.
Twenty-four hours, five of them assigned
An active D.C. RN completes 24 contact hours of continuing education per two-year renewal. Two portions are set by law and count within the 24, not on top:
- 2 hours on LGBTQ or cultural competency. A standing District requirement, unusual among U.S. jurisdictions.
- 3 hours on public health, satisfied by HIV/AIDS content or the topics the Director designates.
The other 19 hours are yours to fill with Board-approved nursing CE. Because the required subjects are narrow, the common failure here isn’t the total, it’s finishing 24 generic hours and discovering neither required topic was covered. Pick those two first.
The Board’s published compliance guidance also lists alternative methods of meeting the requirement (certification, academic credit, and similar), so if you hold a current national certification or are taking coursework, check whether it maps onto the hours before buying a package.
The cycle
The District renews RN licenses every two years, expiring June 30 of even-numbered years. Everyone renews on the same date, so it’s easy to look up. Renew online through DC Health.
The fee
DC Health publishes the pieces rather than one total, and the pieces are cumulative. The RN renewal application fee is $145, and every RN also pays a $50 criminal background check at renewal, a name search with no fingerprints. So an on-time renewal is $195 out of pocket. Renew after June 30 and an $85 late fee lands on top of that, up to the August 30 cutoff. The $145 figure is the one set in the District’s fee regulation; the $195 is what you’ll actually be charged.
The District is not a compact member
This is the practical sting for a D.C. nurse. The District has not joined the Nurse Licensure Compact, so a D.C. license is a single-jurisdiction license, even though its immediate neighbors Maryland and Virginia are both compact states. A nurse living in Virginia with a multistate license can practice across much of the country but still needs a separate D.C. license to work in the District, and a D.C.-licensed nurse gets no multistate privilege from that license. In a metro area where people routinely cross two borders in a commute, that’s the single most consequential fact on this page. Use the compact checker below to confirm the District’s status and see how the surrounding states connect.
Add your renewal deadline to your calendar
Enter your expiration date and download a calendar file. Your own calendar will remind you at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days out. We don't ask for your email, we store nothing, and the date never leaves your device.
Works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook. This is a convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact deadline with the District of Columbia Board of Nursing (DC Health).
How many CE hours do you have left?
District of Columbia requires 24 CE hours this cycle. Enter what you've completed and see what's left. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
Hours alone aren't the whole requirement. Some must be these specific topics:
- LGBTQ or cultural competency (2 of the 24 hours, every renewal)
- Public health, HIV/AIDS or the Director's designated topics (3 of the 24 hours, every renewal)
A convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact requirement with the District of Columbia Board of Nursing (DC Health). This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
District of Columbia asks for 24 hours. That is below the median of 30 across the 37 states that set a flat hour count, which run from 8 to 40. Ranked lowest to highest, District of Columbia is 13 of 37.
Renewal fee
District of Columbia charges $145. The median across the 49 states that publish a figure is $100, running from $50 to $245. Ranked cheapest to dearest, District of Columbia is 42 of 49.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is District of Columbia. States that set no flat hour count, or publish no fee, are left out of that comparison rather than counted as zero.
Where can you practice with your license?
The Nurse Licensure Compact lets a nurse who lives in a compact state hold one multistate license and practice in every other compact state. Pick where you live to see whether that's you, and where it reaches.
Member data from the NCSBN Nurse Licensure Compact map, verified July 2026. A multistate license requires the compact state to be your primary residence. This is a convenience, not legal advice. Confirm your status with your board or at nursecompact.com.
What will this renewal cost?
District of Columbia's renewal fee is filled in from the board below. Add what you expect to spend on CE courses, plus a late fee if you're past due, for a running total. Nothing you type is stored.
The renewal fee is from the District of Columbia Board of Nursing (DC Health) and dated on this page; the CE and late-fee figures are your own estimates. A convenience, not a compliance service, and not legal advice. Confirm fees with your board.