Beginning Sept 1, 2026 you’ll need to do more than complete mandated CE for Texas nursing license renewal, you’ll be reporting it too.
For years, renewing a Texas nursing license meant checking a box. You attested that you’d completed your hours, you paid your fee, you were done. Certificates only mattered if you drew an audit.
That ends September 1, 2026. Under Senate Bill 912, passed during the 89th Legislative Session, Texas nurses must upload their CE certificates in the Texas Nurse Portal before the Board will renew a license. The Board’s own guidance is direct about it: nurses will need to upload all required CE certificates prior to renewing.
The requirements themselves haven’t changed. What changed is that you now have to prove them, at renewal, every time.
This guide covers what Texas actually requires, what’s changing, and the part most nurses get wrong — including one requirement you might not need at all.
The short version
| Hours required | 20 contact hours every 2 years — or a Board-approved national certification |
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years, expiring the last day of your birth month |
| Mandatory topics | Jurisprudence & Ethics (2 hrs / 6 years), Geriatric Care (2 hrs / renewal, if applicable), Human Trafficking (every renewal, free from the state) |
| New for Sept 1, 2026 | Upload CE certificates in the Texas Nurse Portal before renewing (SB 912) |
| CE Broker? | No. Texas doesn’t use it. Your certificates are your record. |
| Record retention | 6 years, or 3 consecutive licensing periods |
| Regulating body | Texas Board of Nursing — (512) 305-7400 |
What’s changing September 1, 2026
Senate Bill 912 moves Texas from attestation to documentation.
Before September 1, 2026: You sign a statement saying you completed your hours. You keep your certificates in case the Board audits you — they select a random sample 90 days before each renewal month.
On and after September 1, 2026: You upload your certificates in the Texas Nurse Portal as part of the renewal application. No upload, no renewal.
Two things worth understanding about this.
First, the requirements didn’t change. It’s still 20 hours. Still the same mandatory topics. SB 912 changed the paperwork, not the workload.
Second, the random audit still exists. Uploading at renewal is a new, separate step — it doesn’t replace the audit process under Board Rule 216.9. If you’re selected for an audit, that still happens, and you still can’t renew until it clears.
The practical consequence is simple and slightly brutal: a certificate you can’t retrieve is the same as an hour you never completed.
That’s a new kind of risk. If your CE lives on a platform you stopped subscribing to, or in an email from 2024, or on a course site that’s since folded, you have a problem you didn’t have last cycle. Certificates you earned in good faith are worth nothing at renewal if you can’t produce the file.
Worth doing now, before September:
- Find every CE certificate from your current licensing period
- Check each one has all five elements Board Rule 216.4 requires (below)
- Put them somewhere you’ll still have access in two years
- For anything still to come, download the certificate the day you finish
The Texas Nurse Portal is the Board’s own system — the same one you already use to renew. Not a third-party tracker, and free. Notably, the Texas Medical Board went a different direction and uses CE Broker for physicians. Nursing does not.
The 20-hour requirement (and the alternative most nurses miss)
Board Rule 216.3 gives every Texas nurse two ways to demonstrate continuing competency:
- Complete 20 contact hours of continuing nursing education in your area of practice, within your licensing period; or
- Achieve, maintain, or renew a Board-approved national nursing certification in your area of practice.
Either satisfies the general requirement. If you’re maintaining an ANCC, AACN, or similar certification anyway, you may not need 20 hours of CE at all.
But the certification path has a catch that trips people up. It substitutes for the 20 general hours. It does not substitute for your targeted topics. Jurisprudence & Ethics in particular can never be satisfied by certification — Board Rule 216.3(g) is explicit, and the statute behind it (Occupations Code §301.305) requires CNE contact hours specifically.
So a certified nurse still owes: jurisprudence and ethics on its cycle, geriatric care if applicable, and human trafficking prevention every renewal.
Renew Now CE offers 3 Texas Package options:
Texas Nursing CE Renewal Package – 20 Contact Hours | RN & LVN
Texas APRN & NP Complete CE Renewal Package – 25 Contact Hours | Includes Required Pharmacotherapy
Texas NP & APRN Mandatory CE Package – 17 Contact Hours | Ethics, Geriatrics & Pharmacotherapy
What “area of practice” means
Texas doesn’t just count hours. Board Rule 216.1(4) defines area of practice as any activity, assignment, or task where you used nursing knowledge, judgment, or skill during the licensing period. Your CE has to match how you actually practice.
This is why a pile of random cheap hours isn’t the same as a clean renewal file. Twenty hours of content unrelated to your practice doesn’t satisfy Rule 216.3, even if the arithmetic works.
If you don’t have a current area of practice, the rule lets you use your most recent one.
Where the hours have to come from
Texas accepts CE from providers approved by Board-recognized credentialing agencies:
- American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
- American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN)
- American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA)
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
- American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)
- Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)
- National Association for Practical Nurse Education and Service (NAPNES)
- National Association of Licensed Practical Nurses (NALPN)
- National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)
- National League for Nursing (NLN)
- U.S. colleges and universities
- Other State Boards of Nursing
- Texas League of Vocational Nurses (TLVN)
Organizations accredited by one of these also qualify. That’s the practical route for most nurses: an ANCC-accredited provider’s contact hours are acceptable to the Texas BON when the content fits your practice area.
What doesn’t count
Board Rule 216.6 lists activities that don’t meet the requirement, and some of them surprise people:
- BLS and CPR — no contact hours, ever
- Employer in-services and orientation — job-specific training isn’t CE
- Nursing refresher courses
- Self-improvement or self-awareness courses that don’t tie to nursing practice
- Financial or career courses — investing, résumés, interviews
- Courses designed for lay people
- CME — Continuing Medical Education does not count for RN or LVN renewal
That last one catches people. CME is only usable by APRNs, in their advanced practice role and population focus area — and never for jurisprudence and ethics. If you’re an RN, AMA PRA Category 1 credit doesn’t help you.
Your mandatory topics
Nursing Jurisprudence & Ethics — 2 hours, every 6 years
Required under Occupations Code §301.305 and Board Rule 216.3(g): two contact hours before the end of every third two-year licensing period. Every third renewal, which works out to every six years.
Content must cover the Texas Nursing Practice Act, Board rules including Rule 217.11 Standards of Nursing Practice, BON position statements, principles of nursing ethics, and professional boundaries.
Three things about this one:
- Certification can’t substitute. Every nurse completes actual CNE hours for this. No exceptions.
- CME can’t substitute either — not even for APRNs.
- It’s not the Nursing Jurisprudence Exam. The NJE is a one-time exam for initial licensure. This is a recurring CE requirement. Different thing.
Completing it early is fine. The hours count toward your 20 for whatever period you complete them in.
Older Adult / Geriatric Care — 2 hours, every renewal
Required under Occupations Code §301.307 and Board Rule 216.3(h), for nurses whose practice includes older adult or geriatric populations. Unlike jurisprudence, this is every renewal cycle, not every third.
Content must cover elder abuse, age-related memory changes, age-related disease processes including chronic conditions, and end-of-life issues.
And here’s the part almost nobody mentions.
§301.307(a) gives you two ways to satisfy this. Complete the two hours — or maintain certification in an area of practice relating to older adult or geriatric populations.
If you hold and maintain a qualifying geriatric certification, you don’t need the hours. Gerontological Nurse Practitioner, ANCC Gerontological Nursing certification, AGACNP-BC, AGPCNP-BC and similar all relate directly to older adult populations.
Be careful with this, though. The certification has to relate to older adult or geriatric populations. FNP-BC doesn’t qualify just because your panel skews older. General certification in a practice area that happens to include seniors isn’t the same as certification in geriatric care. If yours is a borderline case, confirm with the Board before relying on it — the consequence of guessing wrong is a failed renewal.
We’d rather tell you this than sell you an hour you don’t need.
Human Trafficking Prevention — every renewal, free from the state
Required under Occupations Code §301.308 for nurses who provide direct patient care. The course must be approved by the HHSC executive commissioner under Occupations Code §116.002.
The state provides this course at no cost. It’s on the Texas HHS Learning Portal. You should not pay for it.
We don’t sell a Texas human trafficking course. The state gives it away, and the HHSC approval list is closed to new applicants anyway. Take the free one, download the certificate, keep it with your records — and starting September 1, 2026, you’ll be uploading that one too.
If a CE vendor bundles a human trafficking course into a paid Texas package, check that it appears on the HHSC-approved list before you rely on it.
Forensic Evidence Collection — 2 hours, one time, ER only
Required under Occupations Code §301.306 and Board Rule 216.3(d), for nurses employed to work in an emergency room setting.
This one is once, not every cycle. Complete it within two years of initial licensure, or when you start working in an ED.
It also has a documentation quirk: while most CE certificates must be kept for six years, forensic evidence collection documentation must be kept indefinitely (Rule 216.3(d)(3)).
Timing: when your hours have to happen
Your Texas license expires on the last day of your birth month — in odd-numbered years if you were born in an odd-numbered year, even-numbered years if you were born in an even-numbered year (Rule 216.1(14)).
Your licensing period runs from the first day of the month after your birth month through the last day of your birth month two years later.
Hours must be earned inside that window. Three consequences:
- Hours from a previous licensing period don’t count
- Extra hours don’t carry forward
- You can’t renew before your hours are done
That last one is worth spelling out, because the Board does. If your license expires August 31 and you finish your last course August 28, you renew after August 28 — not before. Renewing while you’re still short is grounds for disciplinary action.
Cutting that close is a bad idea generally, and a worse idea after September 1, 2026, when you’ll also need every certificate uploaded before the application goes through.
Non-standard periods: your first licensing period after initial licensure runs 6 to 29 months depending on your birth month. Same for the first period after renewing a delinquent license or reactivating an inactive one. After that, everyone’s on the standard two years.
Recordkeeping and audits
Texas does not use CE Broker. Florida nurses have their completions reported automatically to a central registry. Texas nurses don’t. Your certificates are your record, and keeping them is your job.
That’s true today, and it matters more once uploads are required.
How long to keep them
Board Rules 216.7 and 216.3(d)(3): a minimum of three consecutive licensing periods, or six years. Forensic evidence collection documentation: indefinitely.
What a valid certificate has to contain
Board Rule 216.4 requires five elements:
- Name of the provider
- Program title, date, and location
- Number of contact hours
- Provider number
- Name of the credentialing agency
If a certificate is missing any of these, it may not be accepted. And certification cards — ACLS, PALS, and the like — don’t meet this standard at all.
Worth actually checking your certificates against this list before September. A course completion screenshot isn’t a certificate.
The audit
The Board selects a random sample of nurses 90 days before each renewal month and notifies them by mail, and by email where there’s an address on file. The audit runs through an online portal managed by eStrategy Solutions.
If you’re selected, you can’t renew until your documentation is submitted, reviewed, and approved. Allow up to 10 business days.
Fail an audit and you’re automatically audited again next period. Falsify records and it’s disciplinary action.
Keep your address current with the Board, too — Rule 217.7(b) requires notifying them within 10 days of a change, and not receiving the notice doesn’t excuse you from the audit.
Putting it together
For a typical Texas RN on the CE path, one renewal cycle looks like:
- 20 contact hours in your area of practice, from an approved provider
- 2 of those hours on geriatric care, if you see older adults — unless you hold a qualifying geriatric certification
- 2 of those hours on jurisprudence and ethics, if this is your third cycle
- Human trafficking prevention, free from Texas HHSC
- Every certificate kept for six years — and uploaded at renewal from September 1, 2026
The mandatory topics count toward your 20. They’re not extra. A nurse in a jurisprudence year needs 20 hours includingthose 2, not 22.
The Renew Now CE Texas package
If you’re on the CE path and want the whole thing handled at once:
Texas Nursing CE Renewal Package — 20 Contact Hours | RN & LVN — $49
Four courses, all 20 hours, both Texas BON mandatory topics included:
- Texas Nursing Ethics & Jurisprudence — 2 hours
- Texas Geriatric Care CE for Nurses — 2 hours
- Heart Failure Management — 6 hours (2 pharmacology)
- The Obesity Epidemic & Nutrition — 10 hours
Why this one:
ANCC accredited, Provider P0557. Accepted by the Texas Board of Nursing.
Instant certificates with everything Rule 216.4 requires. Provider name, title, date, contact hours, provider number, credentialing agency. Download the moment you finish, and they stay in your account. Which matters more now than it did last cycle.
Pay once. $49. No subscription, no membership, no auto-renewal. Your certificates don’t disappear if you don’t buy again — there’s nothing to keep buying. In a state with no CE Broker and a new upload requirement, your proof of completion shouldn’t sit behind a membership you have to maintain to retrieve it.
We tell you what’s free. The human trafficking course isn’t in the package because the state provides it at no cost. We link you to it instead.
Take what you need. It’s a package, not a program. Geriatric certification? Skip those hours. Jurisprudence not due this cycle? It’s there for when it is — and it counts toward your 20 either way.
Get the Texas 20-hour package →
Texas APRN or NP? Your requirements are different — you owe 5 pharmacotherapeutics hours above the 20 if you hold prescriptive authority. See our Texas NP & APRN packages.
Frequently asked questions
How many CE hours do Texas RNs need? 20 contact hours every two-year licensing period, in your area of practice — or achieve, maintain, or renew a Board-approved national nursing certification instead. Targeted topics apply on top of either path.
Do I have to upload CE certificates to renew my Texas nursing license? Starting September 1, 2026, yes. Senate Bill 912 requires nurses to upload all required CE certificates in the Texas Nurse Portal before renewing. Before that date, renewal is attestation-based and certificates are only produced on audit.
Does national certification replace my CE requirement? It replaces the 20 general hours, not the targeted topics. Jurisprudence & Ethics, geriatric care, and human trafficking prevention still apply. Jurisprudence & Ethics specifically cannot be satisfied by certification under Rule 216.3(g).
Do I need geriatric CE if I have a geriatric certification? No. Occupations Code §301.307(a) lets you satisfy the requirement either by completing 2 hours or by maintaining certification in an area of practice relating to older adult or geriatric populations. Qualifying certifications include GNP, ANCC Gerontological Nursing, AGACNP-BC, and AGPCNP-BC. FNP-BC alone does not qualify. Confirm with the Board if yours is borderline.
How often do I need jurisprudence and ethics CE? 2 contact hours before the end of every third two-year licensing period — every 6 years.
Is the Texas human trafficking course free? Yes. Texas HHSC provides it at no cost through the HHS Learning Portal. No CE provider should charge you for it.
Does Texas use CE Broker? No. The Texas Board of Nursing uses the Texas Nurse Portal. (The Texas Medical Board uses CE Broker for physicians — different board, different system.)
How long do I keep my Texas CE certificates? Six years, or three consecutive licensing periods. Forensic evidence collection documentation: indefinitely.
Can I use CME for my Texas RN renewal? No. CME doesn’t count for RN or LVN renewal under Rule 216.6. Only APRNs can use it, in their advanced practice role and population focus area, and never for jurisprudence and ethics.
When does my Texas nursing license expire? The last day of your birth month, every two years — odd-numbered years if you were born in an odd-numbered year, even if even.
Can I renew early and finish my hours after? No. Renewing without having completed the requirements is grounds for disciplinary action. Finish your hours, then renew — before your expiration date.
What if I miss my renewal date? Your license goes delinquent and you can’t practice until it’s renewed. Under 90 days late means a late fee; over 90 days is a larger one. Delinquent four years or more, and Rule 217.6 applies.
Sources
- Texas Board of Nursing — Continuing Education & Competency
- Texas Board of Nursing — CNE Tracking Information (SB 912)
- Texas Board of Nursing — Continuing Education FAQs
- Texas Board of Nursing — Texas Nurse Portal
- Texas Occupations Code Chapter 301 (Nursing Practice Act)
- Texas Occupations Code §116.002 (HHSC course approval)
- Texas HHS Learning Portal — free Human Trafficking Prevention course
- Texas Administrative Code, Title 22, Part 11, Chapter 216
- Texas Board of Nursing: (512) 305-7400
This guide summarizes Texas nursing continuing education requirements for general information. Requirements vary by license type, practice setting, and renewal cycle. Verify current requirements with the Texas Board of Nursing before renewing.
Written by Joanna Nolte, APRN, MSN, ANP-BC, FNP-BC — board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Accredited Provider Program Director at Renew Now CE. Last updated July 2026.
