How to renew your Alabama RN license

The split cycle is the thing to get right. Ala. Admin. Code r. 610-X-4-.08(1) puts single-state RN licenses on even years and multistate RN licenses on odd years. Same September 1 – December 31 window either way. Renewing in the wrong year — or panicking in the fall of 2026 over a license that doesn't expire until December 31, 2027 — is the single most common Alabama confusion. Check whether your license reads single-state or multistate in MyABNProfile before anything else.

24 contact hours, and one widely repeated error worth correcting. Alabama does not require that a portion of the 24 come from an Alabama-approved provider. The rule accepts Board-approved or Board-recognized providers interchangeably. Board-recognized includes any U.S. state board of nursing, ANCC- and IACET-approved providers, national nursing organizations, any Alabama regulatory board, AMA PRA Category 1 Credits accredited by ACCME or the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, standardized national courses, state nurses associations, and accredited colleges and universities with CE in their mission.

The 4-hour Mandatory Class. Required only for your first license renewal — provided by the ABN itself, inside MyABNProfile, covering the statutory and administrative framework for nursing regulation, scope of practice and standards of practice. Any nurse may take it, and may claim credit once per renewal period.

The ABNP posting rule — get this backwards and you fail an audit. Board-approved providers hold an assigned ABNP number and post contact hours electronically and directly into your Individual CE Record. Rule 610-X-10-.02(11): licensed nurses shall not self-enter courses from an ABNP-numbered provider. Conversely, Rule 610-X-10-.07(1)(d) requires you to self-upload documentation for hours from Board-recognized providers that have no ABNP number — an out-of-state course, for instance. Nurses double-enter ABNP hours or assume an out-of-state ANCC course posts itself, and fail either way.

Course caps, which are lower than the class you sat through: BLS 1.75; ACLS 8; PALS 8; TNCC 12; NRP 11 — unless a Board-approved or -recognized provider awards more. A class may not be repeated within the same earning period for credit. An overlooked freebie: serving as an appointed facility preceptor for students or new-hire orientation is worth 8 contact hours.

Units: 1 contact hour = 50 minutes; 15 contact hours = 1 semester credit; 10 = 1 quarter credit.

APRNs: 6 contact hours of pharmacology counted inside the 24. CRNP/CNM with prescriptive authority need pharmacology specific to prescriptive practice in the approved collaborative-practice area; CRNAs and CNSs need 6 general pharmacology hours. Graduate pharmacology credit earned during the APRN program before initial approval does not count. If one year or less remains in the license period at initial approval, no pharmacology hours are required for the first advanced-practice renewal.

Audit and retention: signed statement of affirmation at renewal, under penalty. Retain documentation four years following the year the hours were earned. The Board runs annual random audits at renewal; audit notice goes to your address of record 30 days before the window opens and is flagged on your profile. Failing an audit carries a late CE audit fee of $150 / $300 / $600 for first, second, and third-or-more offenses.

24 contact hours per earning period from a Board-approved or Board-recognized provider, with 6 of those hours reserved for pharmacology for APRNs. Board-recognized providers include any U.S. state board of nursing, ANCC- and IACET-approved providers, national nursing organizations, any Alabama regulatory board, AMA PRA Category 1 Credits accredited by ACCME or the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, standardized national courses, state nurses associations, and accredited colleges and universities with CE in their mission.

First-time renewers substitute proration for the flat 24 — see "Your first renewal after licensure" below. Course caps apply regardless of cycle: BLS 1.75 hours, ACLS 8, PALS 8, TNCC 12, NRP 11, unless a provider awards more, and no class may be repeated for credit within the same earning period. Serving as an appointed facility preceptor is worth 8 contact hours on its own.

Audit and retention: a signed statement of affirmation at renewal, four years of documentation retention after the year hours were earned, and annual random audits with notice mailed to your address of record 30 days before the renewal window opens. A failed audit carries a late CE audit fee of $150, $300, or $600 for the first, second, and third-or-later offense.

Nothing changed for RN renewal mechanics, CE hours, or fees. Rule 610-X-4-.08 (Renewal) was last amended effective September 12, 2022; Rule 610-X-4-.14 (Fees) effective September 14, 2024; the CE rules in 610-X-10 effective 2016–2022.

What did change is on the APRN side: Chapter 610-X-5 (collaborative practice) was amended effective January 10, 2026, and a Chapter 610-X-9 change reduces required direct patient care clinical experience from 4,000 to 3,000 hours effective January 1, 2027.

Rule 610-X-4-.08(3)(c)3(i): a first-time renewer owes "four contact hours of Board-provided continuing education … and one contact hour for each calendar month remaining in the earning period up to a maximum of 24 contact hours including the four hours."

Two things follow. The 4 Board hours are inside the 24, not added to it — a nurse owing 12 hours needs 4 Board hours plus 8 others, not 16. And the count drops one hour per month, so the later you were licensed, the less you owe.

For the live single-state 2026 cycle, the board publishes a full CE Proration Chart:

One caveat to state carefully. Licensed September through December of a renewal year and the prorated hour count is zero — but the chart's own footnote says newly licensed nurses, by examination and by endorsement, must still complete the 4-hour Mandatory Class. The interaction isn't spelled out by the board. Take the Mandatory Class regardless.

Endorsement is different and stricter: "All endorsement applicants, regardless of their date of graduation or date of licensure, are required to submit 24 contact hours of continuing education." Credits earned more than 24 months before application are excluded, and hours used to obtain the endorsement license cannot be counted toward the next renewal. Endorsement applicants effectively pay the 24-hour price twice in short order. Reinstated nurses get the same proration treatment, with the same no-reuse rule.

Fee proration: there is none. First renewal fees are the same flat $103.50 / $203.50 regardless of how short the first term is.