South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry
Check any South Carolina certified nursing assistant on the South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry. The search is free, needs no account, and is the same record an employer sees. This page covers looking up a license, reading the status, keeping your certification active, and getting listed after your exam.
This is the state's own system, run by SCDHHS. It is the same database an employer checks, and the only place a certification status is authoritative.
Four ways to use this page. Pick the one that matches your situation.
South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry Key Facts
- Governing agency
- SCDHHSSouth Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
- Lookup portal
- cna365.examroom.ai Credentia, public search
- Processing time
- 10 business daysbefore you appear on the registry
- Registry phone
- (888) 204-6249
- Renewal cycle
- 24 months work hours must be reported
How to Look Up a South Carolina CNA License
This section is the mechanics: where the search is, what to type into it, and how to read what comes back.
South Carolina keeps its nurse aide records at cna365.examroom.ai. The search is public, so you can check your own record or a candidate's record without an account and without paying.
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Open the South Carolina registry search
Go to cna365.examroom.ai and use the Nurse Aide Registry panel. It is subtitled “Welcome to the Government South Carolina Department of Health Credential Management System”. The search takes a reCAPTCHA tick box you have to clear first, then one of two sections: Search By Name, which takes First Name, Last Name, City and Date of Birth, or Search By Registration Number, which takes up to 15 numbers at once. The note on screen says any two of the four name fields will do, but the Search button only appears once First Name and one other field each hold at least two characters. No login, no account, no fee.
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Enter your details as the registry recorded them
Use the name from the time of testing, and fill in every box the panel asks for. If it offers a registration number box, use that as well: the number is unique to one person and a name is not.
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Match the record to the person
Check every identifying detail the result shows, not just the name, before you treat a row as a match. A common surname can return more than one person, and the wrong record can look right at a glance.
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Read the record, not just the listing
Open the record itself. Appearing on the registry is not the same as being current, so read what the record says about standing, whether that is a status, an expiry date, or both, then check it against the status table below. The results table shows First Name, Last Name, City, State, Postal Code, Program, Status, Registration Number and Action.
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Save a dated copy of the result
Print to PDF or screenshot the page showing the name, registration number, what the record says about standing, and the date you checked. Employers and agencies usually want that record on file.
How to find your registration number
Where a search takes the number, it narrows the result to one person in a way a name may not. If you have lost it, it is on any of these.
- Your certificate or wallet card, if your state issued one after the skills test
- The result page of the registry search itself, once you have found your record
- Your employer's personnel file, because facilities record it when they verify you at hire
- The registry, on (888) 204-6249, if none of the above works
What Each South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry Status Means
The status field is the part that decides whether someone can work. Wording varies by state, so read the exact term on the record rather than assuming what it means.
| Status | What it means | Can they work? |
|---|---|---|
| Lapsed - Not Eligible to Work as CNA | The certification is not current, and the label spells out the consequence: this person cannot be employed as a nurse aide in South Carolina until the record is reactivated. A lapsed record stays listed rather than disappearing, so finding the name proves nothing on its own. | No |
| Certified | The certification is current. South Carolina shows two different words for a record in good standing, this one and Active, and publishes a definition of neither, so read the expiry date on the record as well as the word. | Yes |
| Active | Also a current certification. It appears alongside Certified in the same results and the state publishes no distinction between the two, so treat the expiry date rather than the word as the thing that settles it. | Yes |
| Lapsed - Not Eligible to Work as Medication Assistant | The same registry also covers South Carolina's Medication Assistant credential, and this label says that credential has lapsed. It does not answer whether the person can work as a CNA, which is a separate row in the same results, so read every row the search returns for a name rather than the first one. | No |
| Revoked | The certification has been taken away. It is not active standing, so it does not allow work as a nurse aide in a Medicare- or Medicaid-certified nursing facility. | No |
Why Your South Carolina CNA License Is Not Showing on the Registry
| Problem | What is happening | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your name returns no results | The registry stores the legal name you used at the time of testing. A lapsed South Carolina certification stays on the registry and shows as Lapsed - Not Eligible to Work as CNA rather than disappearing, so a blank result is usually a spelling difference or a city that no longer matches. City is the last known address the registry holds for you, and it can be somewhere you have since moved away from, including out of state. The State column reads South Carolina on every row because it names the registry rather than where you live. The search will also not run at all without a first name of at least two letters, so a surname on its own returns nothing and never even shows a Search button. | Search your maiden or pre-marriage name, and give the search less to match on rather than more. |
| You passed but you are not listed | Results have to reach the registry from your testing entity before a record exists. | Allow at least 10 business days, then call (888) 204-6249 with your test date and testing entity. |
| The record shows as expired but you have been working | Qualifying hours have to be reported before the record updates, and yours may not have been filed. | File your own employment verification with the registry, then re-check the record. |
| You do not know how to file the report | The registry expects the report to come from you, so it will not arrive on its own. | Contact the registry on (888) 204-6249 or scnar@scdhhs.gov and ask for the form they accept. |
| Details on your record are wrong | Name, address and registry data come from the record created at testing. | Contact the registry on (888) 204-6249 or scnar@scdhhs.gov with documentation of the correct details. |
How to Verify a CNA License in South Carolina
This section is what the result proves: what a record is evidence of, what to save as your copy of it, and what it means for you specifically. The search itself is the same for everyone.
Verifying your own license after finishing training
Look yourself up at cna365.examroom.ai once your testing entity has filed your results. Allow at least 10 business days before you treat a missing record as a problem. Save a dated copy of the record, because most employers ask for proof at offer stage rather than checking themselves.
Verifying your license after transferring from another state
A certification held in another state does not appear in South Carolina until reciprocity is processed. Until a South Carolina record exists, employers here cannot verify you, and your out-of-state record is the only proof you have. See transferring a license to South Carolina for the application route, then verify the new record the same way.
Verifying someone else's license (for employers)
Federal rules require a facility to check the registry before it lets someone work as a nurse aide. The record shows the certification status, and nothing about findings. South Carolina keeps any substantiated finding of abuse, neglect, or misappropriation of resident property on the certification record rather than on a separate list, but the public search does not display it, so a clean-looking result is not a cleared record. Federal rules require the registry to disclose findings to anyone who asks, so ask the registry on (888) 204-6249 before you rely on the search alone. The record only covers South Carolina, so if a candidate has worked elsewhere, search that state's registry too.
How to Renew Your South Carolina CNA License
Renewal in South Carolina is yours to file. You report your own qualifying work to the registry, and the record does not update until you do, however long you have been working.
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Work at least 8 consecutive hours in a qualifying role
The hours must be paid nursing or nursing-related duties inside the 24 months before your record lapses. Unpaid placements and volunteer shifts do not count. If the work was in another state, ask the registry whether it counts before you rely on it, because states differ.
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File the report yourself
You submit it, not your employer, through the state's system, the Credentia Platform. The record does not update until you do, so file before it lapses. Check what the registry wants as evidence of the hours, because some states take your own signed statement and others want the employer to confirm them.
Do it while you still work there. Whatever the registry asks for, it is harder to get from a former employer. -
Check the record, and read the expiry date
Look yourself up at cna365.examroom.ai about 10 business days after the report was filed. A status of active on its own is not enough, because the previous period may still be running. The expiry date is what tells you the new period has actually started.
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Fix a missing report before it lapses
If the hours were worked but never reported, that is correctable, and it is far easier to correct while the record is still active. Contact the registry on (888) 204-6249 or scnar@scdhhs.gov and ask what they will accept as evidence of the work.
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Keep your own dated copy
Save the record showing the new expiry date. If a report is ever missed, that copy is what you give a new employer while the registry corrects it.
| Item | South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Active period | 24 months from the reported work |
| Work required | At least 8 consecutive hours of paid nursing or nursing-related duties |
| What counts | Paid nursing or nursing-related duties |
| What does not count | Volunteer shifts and unpaid clinical placements |
| Work in another state | Ask the registry before you rely on it. States differ on whether out-of-state hours count |
| Who reports it | You. The registry expects the worker to file |
| Where the report is filed | the Credentia Platform |
| Renewal fee | $35. If you are employed by a Medicaid-certified employer, print the payment receipt and give it to your employer for reimbursement. |
| Filing deadline | Renewal opens 90 days before your expiry date and closes 30 days after it |
| Continuing education required | None to renew. Eight hours of paid nursing work inside the 24 months and the renewal fee are the whole requirement. Your employer still owes you at least 12 hours of in-service education a year under federal rules, but that is the facility's duty rather than a condition of staying on the registry. |
How to Reinstate a Lapsed South Carolina CNA License
If 24 months pass with no qualifying work, the record stops being active. What it takes to come back depends on which of these you are.
| Your situation | What you do | Retesting |
|---|---|---|
| You worked recently, but the hours were never reported | File the employment verification for that work now | No |
| No qualifying work for 24 months or more | If you completed a 100-hour state-approved program and the certificate has been expired for under two years, South Carolina lets you retest without retraining. Once it has been expired for more than two years, or if you never did that training, you have to retrain at a 100-hour program and then retest. | Yes |
| You hold an active certification in another state | Apply through reciprocity. See our South Carolina reciprocity guide | Usually not |
| You are not working in a Medicare- or Medicaid-certified facility | The federal requirement does not reach you, but other employers set their own rules and many still ask for an active certification | No |
How to Get on the South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry
In South Carolina you do not file a registry application yourself. You train, you test, and your testing entity sends the application and results to the registry.
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Meet the basic requirements
South Carolina does not publish a minimum age for registry eligibility. Training providers set their own, so check with the provider before you enrol.
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Complete an approved 100-hour course
Train with a provider approved in South Carolina. See our list of South Carolina CNA programs.
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Pass the written and skills tests
A knowledge examination, which you may take written or orally, and a hands-on skills demonstration. Both must be passed. The knowledge test can be taken orally instead of in writing if you ask, which is a federal right in every state and is worth knowing if reading is difficult for you or English is not your first language.
If a facility has already hired you, both tests have to be passed within four months of your hire date. Our free CNA practice tests cover the same knowledge areas as the written test, and the free CNA skills course walks through the skills evaluation itself.
The state charges no application fee. Testing costs are set by the testing entity rather than the state, so ask your provider what theirs are. -
Let your testing entity file the results
The testing entity sends your application and results straight to the registry. There is nothing for you to submit.
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Check that you appear on the registry
Allow at least 10 business days, then look yourself up at cna365.examroom.ai before you contact the registry.
South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry Contact Information
- Phone
- (888) 204-6249
- scnar@scdhhs.gov
- Mailing address
- South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
P.O. Box 8206
Columbia, SC 29202-8206
- License lookup
- cna365.examroom.ai
- Registry information
- SCDHHS Nurse Aide page
South Carolina CNA Requirements at a Glance
| Requirement | South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Registry name | South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry |
| Credential term used by the state | nurse aide |
| Governing agency | South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services |
| Total training hours | 100 |
| Clinical hours | 40 |
| Exam | A knowledge examination, which you may take written or orally, and a hands-on skills demonstration. Both must be passed. |
| Testing deadline | Both tests within four months of hire |
| Application fee | Free |
| Processing time | From 10 business days |
| Renewal cycle | 24 months, worker-reported hours |
| Testing vendor | Credentia |
Transferring a CNA License To or From South Carolina (Reciprocity)
Reciprocity is how an active certification held in one state becomes a certification in another. It usually avoids retesting, but only while your current certification is in good standing. A lapsed or flagged record cannot transfer.
The route in and out of South Carolina, the documents required and the current processing time are covered in the guide. The tool checks any two states against each other.
South Carolina CNA Training Programs
The steps above are the whole route onto the registry. The one thing that comes before them is an approved 100-hour program, because you cannot sit the exam without completing one. The state itself charges no application fee, so training is the cost that matters.
| Program | City |
|---|---|
| NHC Healthcare Charleston | Charleston |
| Tart's CPR And Learning Center | Columbia |
| Trident Technical College | North Charleston |
| Wando High School | Mount Pleasant |
| York Technical College | Rock Hill |
Tell us where you are and we will match you with approved programs. Takes about a minute.
Find CNA programs near you✓ Free Service • ✓ No Obligations • ✓ Compare Multiple Programs • ✓ Accredited Schools Only
Cost, format and city for each one, listed by city so you can start near you.
If you want to prepare before you enrol, our free CNA skills course covers the material the program and the skills test are built on.
South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry FAQ
Is the South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry free to search?
Why can I not find my name on the registry?
How long does South Carolina certification last?
Can I report my own work hours?
What happens if my status expires?
Can an employer see abuse or neglect findings?
Do I need to be on the registry to work in South Carolina?
Look Up a CNA License in Another State
Every state runs its own registry, and a certification is only verifiable in the state that issued it. Pick a state to see its portal, its status vocabulary and its renewal rules.