Idaho Moved Several Health Licenses to Two-Year Renewals

If your Idaho license used to renew every year and the next notice says something different, you are not imagining it. Late in 2025, Idaho's Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses began moving several health professions from annual to biennial renewal. That sounds administrative. It quietly changes how you count CE.

Who is affected

The transition touches registered nurses, clinical social workers, and professional counselors, among others. The change matters because CE totals that were framed per year now get framed per two-year period — and during a transition, your specific cycle can be prorated or shifted in ways that do not match the textbook number.

Idaho RNs: a competency-activity model, not a fixed hour count

Here is the part people miss. Idaho does not require a fixed number of CE contact hours for RN renewal at all. Under IDAPA 23.01.01.061, licensees complete at least two qualifying learning activities related to practice, education, or professional engagement within the renewal period. Completing 15 contact hours of relevant CE is one option among several. Licenses have historically expired August 31 of odd-numbered years. New nurses are generally exempt from continuing competency for their first renewal after initial Idaho licensure.

This activity-based approach is unusual but not unique — Virginia uses a similar competency menu, and Colorado's social worker competency model works on the same idea of demonstrating competence rather than logging a flat hour count. If you have only ever worked in fixed-hour states, read those alongside this one.

Idaho social workers and counselors: real hour totals

The picture is different for behavioral health. Idaho LCSWs owe 30 hours every 24 months, including 2 hours of ethics. Idaho LPCs and LCPCs have historically owed 40 hours per biennium (20 per year) with mandated subjects measured over each 24-month period: 6 hours of ethics, 3 hours of boundaries, and 3 hours of suicide assessment or intervention. Because of the biennial transition, the total-hour framing for counselors may have shifted, so confirm the current total and cycle directly with DOPL.

The ethics piece is the through-line — ethics is the one mandate nearly every behavioral-health license shares — and the suicide hours connect to a broader trend in suicide-prevention CE requirements.

Why the transition is the dangerous part

Switching renewal cadence is exactly when people miscount. If you completed a year of CE, then your cycle becomes two years, the question of what carries and what restarts gets murky. This is the same hazard described in why your CME deadline and license expiration are not always the same date and in what transfers when your timing changes. The safe move is to confirm your individual renewal date and cycle length with the board rather than assuming.

Idaho is one of several states adjusting rules right now. Rhode Island pharmacists are mid-switch to a two-year cycle too, and the full set is in our roundup of states changing CME between 2026 and 2028 and the profession-by-profession tracker.

Sorting out your specific cycle

Confirm three things directly with the Idaho Board of Nursing or the relevant DOPL board: your renewal date, whether your cycle is now one or two years, and how the transition prorates your CE. For social workers, see the Idaho State Board of Social Work Examiners; for counselors, the DOPL counseling board.

If a transition year feels like a guessing game, that is a good time to have someone map it. White Glove CME builds a written plan that accounts for your exact renewal cadence, prorated or not, for a flat $99 per license renewal — planning only, no credit issued and no board login. See pricing or send your renewal details. Idaho requirement pages sit under the Idaho overview, including RN and LCSW breakdowns.