Louisiana RN License Renewal: Steps, CE Requirements & Fees

Find your year first. Log in to the Nurse Portal and read the expiration date on your RN license. 01/31/2027 means you renew between October 1 and December 31, 2026. 01/31/2028 means your license is mid-cycle; the renewal application will not appear for you this fall, and that is correct. Louisiana has been biennial since the 2020 renewal season (§3333, amended LR 46:1225, effective September 1, 2020); the state statute page still says "annually," and so do several older guides. Trust the date on your license.

Four ways to meet the competency requirement (LAC 46:XLVII §3335.C.1). Pick one for the February 1, 2025 – January 31, 2027 licensure period and attest at renewal:

1. 900 practice hours in two years, verified by your employer on LSBN's form if you are audited. That is roughly 9 hours a week, or about six months of full-time work across the whole cycle. Hours worked in any state count. Practice means working in a role that requires an RN license — bedside, education, administration, case management, informatics, research. If you have the hours you owe no CE.
2. 30 board-approved contact hours in two years. "Board-approved" means the certificate carries an ANCC accreditation statement or approval by a U.S. state board of nursing — the single most common audit failure is a certificate from a provider with neither. Post-licensure academic nursing courses convert at 15 contact hours per semester credit (12 per trimester, 10 per quarter); a post-licensure BSN counts for a maximum of four consecutive years.
3. Initial Louisiana licensure in 2026 — by exam or by endorsement. You renew this fall, you pay $100, and you check this box instead of attesting to hours.
4. Current specialty certification from a national certifying body LSBN recognizes (its list is here), held for the full two-year period. Nationally certified APRNs meet the RN requirement this way automatically.

Exceptions (§3335.C.2), requested inside the renewal application with documentation: six or more months of active-duty military service during the period; a medical disability that kept you from working for two-thirds of the period; enrollment in a board-approved refresher course; a documented emergency. Inactivating your license is also an option — the requirements then apply at reactivation.

What Louisiana does not require. No mandatory CE topics for RNs. No pharmacology, no human trafficking, no implicit bias, no jurisprudence course. If an employer requires BLS or ACLS renewal, that is the employer's rule, not the board's, and ACLS or BLS hours do not count toward the 30 unless the course carries an ANCC or state-board approval statement.

APRNs renew the APRN license on the same application and the same window. There is no APRN compact, so the APRN license must be renewed to practice in Louisiana. APRNs with prescriptive authority owe 6 contact hours of pharmacotherapeutics each year in their role and population focus (LAC 46:XLVII §4513.D.5) — audited as 12 hours per two-year cycle, and certificates must show the pharmacology hours separately.

Audit. LSBN randomly selects at least 3% of renewers, on or around March following the window (§3335.I.2). Notice arrives by email to your Nurse Portal address of record, not by mail. If selected you return Audit Form #1 (RN Audit Attestation) with an original signature plus your certificates, or Form #2 (Nursing Employment Verification) signed by every employer covering the 900 hours. Mail only — faxed, emailed and message-center submissions are rejected. Failing the audit or missing its deadline rescinds the renewal. Keep certificates five years. A valid certificate shows six things: provider name, your name, course title, contact hours, date awarded, and the accreditation statement.

Compact. Louisiana implemented the NLC on July 1, 2019. Multistate holders renew on the same $100 application, and the compact status you hold on renewal day carries forward. Converting single-state to multistate is a separate application with a fingerprint background check and is not part of renewal. If Louisiana stops being your primary state of residence, the multistate license converts to single-state.

Nothing changed in the rules for the 2026 window. The two-year license (§3333, 2020), the $100 fee (§3341), the four competency options (§3335.C.1) and the $50 late fee are the same as the 2024 window this cohort last used. LSBN revised the audit attestation form in June 2026 (Form #1, rev. 6/26) — the option wording is unchanged; if you keep a copy from a prior audit, download the new one.

One thing to un-learn: Louisiana is not annual. If you renewed in fall 2025, your license reads 01/31/2028 and you skip this year. If you renewed in fall 2024, it reads 01/31/2027 and this is your year. The renewal reminder some third-party sites send every autumn is wrong for half the state.

Louisiana's first renewal is earlier and easier than in most states:

• When is it? The fall of the same calendar year you were licensed. An initial license expires the January 31 following issuance, so a nurse licensed March 2026 renews October 1 – December 31, 2026. Licensed in December 2026? You still renew in that same window, or in January with the $50 late fee. After this first renewal the license runs a full two years.
• Is the CE waived? Yes. "Initial RN licensure obtained within the preceding calendar year" is itself one of the four competency options (§3335.C.1). You select it in the application and owe no hours. The next cycle (February 2027 – January 2029) needs the full 30 hours or 900 practice hours.
• Is the fee prorated? No. $100 for what may be a 10-month license.
• Endorsement counts. Licensed by endorsement in 2026 from another state: same rule, same exemption.
• Multistate new grads: if you were issued a multistate license, the exemption applies the same way. If you were issued single-state and want multistate, convert after renewing — it is a separate application.