Illinois Nurse Practitioner CE Requirements

• Licenses renew every 2 years (biennial).
• APRN licenses expire May 31 of even-numbered years — current deadline is May 31, 2026.

• 80 hours of continuing education in the APRN's specialty per 2-year cycle (225 ILCS 65; 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1300.130)
  • At least 50 of the 80 must be from approved CE programs
  • Up to 30 hours may come from presentations, publications, research, EBP/QI projects, or precepting

• 20 hours of pharmacotherapeutics per renewal cycle, counted within the 50 approved-program hours.
• Those 20 hours must include 10 hours of opioid prescribing or substance-abuse education.

• Prescribers licensed to prescribe controlled substances must complete 1 hour of CE on safe opioid prescribing practices during each pre-renewal period (720 ILCS 570/315.5, as amended eff. Jan 1, 2025); it counts toward the 80-hour total. (Stat headline should read '1 hour'; note that IDFPR FAQ materials still reference the former 3-hour CSR requirement.)
• The 10 opioid/substance-abuse hours are embedded in the 20 pharmacotherapeutics hours.
• Additional mandates within the 80 hours
  • 1 hour sexual harassment prevention
  • 1 hour implicit bias awareness (since 2024 renewals)
  • 1 hour Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, treatment, and care (since 2024, for APRNs serving adult patients 26+)

• The same 80-hour structure applies to APRNs and FPA-APRNs (full practice authority).
• CE must be completed in the 24 months preceding expiration.
• A PMHNP's 80 specialty hours must be in the psychiatric-mental-health specialty; the 10-hour opioid/substance-abuse component overlaps naturally with addiction-psychiatry content.

Official sources