CNA Classes in Indiana 2026: Top Schools, Free Programs & State Exam Guide

CNA Classes in Indiana: Your Complete 2026 Training Guide

Hoosier hospitals, nursing homes, and home-health agencies cannot find enough certified nursing assistants. That shortage is good news if you want a quick entry into healthcare. Indiana keeps the path short, the cost low, and the rules clear.

You can finish CNA classes in Indiana in roughly 4 to 12 weeks, pay under $1,500 at most Ivy Tech campuses, and start a paid floor job before some friends have picked a college major. The state has been short of aides every year since 2019, and the staffing crunch keeps wages and sign-on bonuses moving up.

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) approves every program. The state minimum is 75 hours of instruction — 30 hours in the classroom and 45 hours of supervised clinical practice at a long-term care facility. After class, you sit a two-part state competency exam.

The exam covers a 60-question written test and a five-skill hands-on demonstration. Pass both and ISDH lists your name on the Indiana Nurse Aide Registry, which employers check before they hire. Most students finish, test, and start work within 90 days of enrolling.

This guide walks through every step. We map the top training schools by city, compare costs, show you how free "Earn and Learn" routes work, and explain what happens on test day. If you have not started prepping for the written portion yet, run a few sets of the free cna practice test on this site.

Most Hoosier students who fail do so on the written half, not the skills half — early review prevents the $130 retake fee. The skills portion is largely muscle memory; the written portion needs deliberate study of vocabulary, vital signs, and infection control.

Already certified somewhere else and moving to Indiana? You probably do not need to retake the full 75 hours. Skip ahead to the reciprocity section. Want to skip tuition entirely? Many Indianapolis and Fort Wayne nursing homes will pay your training in exchange for a 6- to 12-month commitment — details below in the free programs section.

What you actually learn in an Indiana CNA program

Indiana's 75-hour curriculum is standardized by ISDH. The 30 classroom hours cover patient rights, infection control, communication, basic anatomy, common diseases of aging, nutrition and hydration, and end-of-life care.

You will memorize abbreviations, normal vital sign ranges, and the federal CNA scope of practice — what you can and cannot do without an RN or LPN present. The vocabulary chunk catches most students off guard, so make flashcards in week one.

The 45 clinical hours happen at a partnered long-term care facility, usually a nursing home. You shadow an experienced CNA for the first shifts, then take on residents under supervision.

You'll practice bed-making with a person in it, transferring from bed to wheelchair using a gait belt, perineal care, denture care, feeding assistance, ambulation with a walker, and measuring blood pressure manually. The 22-skill checklist is the same one tested on exam day, so clinical hours double as your real test prep.

Indiana CNA prerequisites — what you need to enroll

Ivy Tech and most ISDH-approved schools require a high school diploma or GED, age 16 or older (some require 18), and a criminal background check through the Indiana State Police. You will also need a TB test within the last 12 months and proof of current immunizations including MMR, varicella, hep B series started, and annual flu.

A 10-panel drug screen is also standard. A few programs add a TABE reading/math placement to make sure you can handle drug dosage math at a 9th-grade level. None of these requirements are unique to Indiana — they're consistent across most US states.

Disqualifying convictions matter. Indiana law bars anyone with abuse, neglect, theft from a vulnerable person, or violent felony convictions from the registry. Lesser offenses do not automatically bar you — bring documentation to the admissions advisor.

If you are not sure where you stand, request a free record check before paying tuition. Programs are not required to give refunds if your background check clears late and you've already paid.

The Indiana CNA state exam — what to expect

After class, you register for the Indiana State Department of Health Nurse Aide Competency Evaluation Program. The test is delivered by D&S Diversified Services (Headmaster) through Pearson VUE testing centers in major Indiana cities and at many Ivy Tech campuses.

The application fee is around $25 and the exam fee is roughly $130 — about $155 total. The written portion has 60 multiple-choice questions; you need 75% to pass. Reading comprehension and infection-control terminology drive most missed questions.

The skills portion is five randomly chosen procedures from the 22-skill checklist, scored by a registered nurse evaluator. You must demonstrate each step in the correct order — miss one critical step (like hand hygiene before resident contact) and that skill fails.

You can retake either portion up to three times within two years. After three failures, you must retake the 75-hour course. Need to brush up on procedure order? Drill the cna classes overview and free practice tests on this site.

After you pass — the Indiana Nurse Aide Registry

ISDH adds your name to the Indiana Nurse Aide Registry within about 10 business days of passing. The registry is public — anyone can search your status at in.gov/isdh.

Employers verify it before they hire and re-verify it at renewal. To use the registry yourself, run an cna license lookup when your name should appear.

Registry entries include your name, certification number, status (active/expired/abuse finding), and the date you tested. The registry is also the only legal way for an employer to confirm certification — paper certificates alone are not accepted.

Free CNA training in Indiana — the full picture

If you cannot or will not pay tuition, Indiana has more free routes than most states. The biggest is Earn and Learn. Long-term care facilities across Indiana — Trilogy Health Services, American Senior Communities, CarDon, Asbury Methodist, and dozens of independents — run their own ISDH-approved programs.

The facility pays your tuition, training time wage, and exam fees in exchange for a 6 to 12 month employment commitment after you certify. Pay during training is typically $13-$15/hr, then bumps to $15-$18/hr once you are certified.

Look for "CNA training program" or "paid CNA training" on Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or the chain's own careers pages. Recruiters usually move fast — most Earn-and-Learn cohorts fill within a week of posting because the facility is desperate for staff.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) covers tuition, books, and sometimes transportation for unemployed or displaced workers. Apply at any Indiana WorkOne office — there's one in every region.

Approval takes 2-4 weeks. WIOA can be stacked with Earn-and-Learn at some facilities, so you essentially get paid twice for training. The funding pool resets each fiscal year, so apply early in summer or winter if possible.

Indiana also funds CNA seats through several smaller channels: TANF (welfare-to-work), Vocational Rehabilitation Services for people with disabilities, and county-level scholarships at adult education centers. Veterans can use Post-9/11 GI Bill funds at Ivy Tech.

If you have aged out of foster care, the Indiana Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program pays up to $5,000 per year for vocational training. Adult Education centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Gary stack ETV with WIOA so the entire program is covered.

One more option people miss: IU Health and other hospital systems will sometimes pay CNA training when they hire you into a unit clerk, transporter, or environmental services role first. The hospital wants long-term staff and will invest in your certification.

Ask the recruiter — the program is rarely advertised. Compare with our broader free cna classes overview to see how Indiana stacks up against other states with similar shortages.

Indiana CNA salary and job outlook

Indiana CNAs earn between $14 and $18 per hour on average, with median around $16. Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and South Bend pay slightly higher; rural counties pay slightly lower but often add sign-on bonuses of $1,500-$3,000 because of severe staffing shortages.

Hospital positions pay $1-$3 more per hour than nursing-home positions, though competition is tougher. Home-health CNAs can hit $20+/hr including travel pay. See more in the broader cna hourly pay guide for state-by-state context.

Shifts are typically 8 or 12 hours, with weekend rotation expected. Most new Indiana CNAs work at long-term care or assisted living first; hospital positions usually require 6-12 months of experience.

The Hoosier shortage is real — Indiana Department of Workforce Development projects 10%+ growth through 2030, faster than the national average. Trilogy and American Senior Communities have been advertising signing bonuses every quarter since 2022.

Differential pay is common in Indiana. Evening, night, and weekend shifts typically add $1-$3 per hour. Pickup shifts at short-staffed facilities can pay $25-$30/hr. Travel CNA contracts across the state pay $22-$28/hr plus per diem.

Indiana CNA reciprocity — moving in from another state

If you are already certified in another state and moving to Indiana, do not retake 75 hours. Apply for endorsement at in.gov/isdh. You need proof of training (transcript or program certificate), proof of active certification in your home state, and a clean abuse/neglect record.

ISDH usually processes endorsement applications in 3-4 weeks. While you wait, you can work for up to 4 months as a "trainee" in a long-term care facility. The facility files paperwork with ISDH on your behalf, so the employer is highly motivated to move things along.

Moving the other direction? Use cna license to look up your destination state's specific endorsement rules. Most accept Indiana's 75-hour training; a few (Florida, California) require additional hours or supplemental coursework.

If you plan to work across state lines on travel CNA contracts, you may need to hold active certifications in multiple states simultaneously. Confirm status with cna license verification before accepting assignments. Some staffing agencies handle the dual-state paperwork; others expect you to manage it yourself.

Worth noting: Indiana does not currently participate in any multi-state CNA compact. Each border state (Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio) requires its own endorsement application. Plan 4-6 weeks of paperwork lead time if you intend to work in multiple jurisdictions.

Career path — CNA today, LPN or RN tomorrow

The smartest Hoosier CNAs use the credential as a stepping stone. Ivy Tech's LPN program runs 11-12 months and costs $8,000-$15,000 total — Pell-eligible and stackable with prior CNA credits at some campuses.

From LPN you can bridge to an associate-degree RN (ASN) in another 18-24 months. Total time from zero healthcare experience to RN can be under 4 years, all while working as a CNA and earning a wage. Many Hoosier RNs took exactly this path.

If you want to skip LPN and go straight to RN, Ivy Tech, Indiana Wesleyan, and IU Kokomo all run two-year associate RN programs. Working full-time as a CNA while studying is intense but doable — most students reduce to part-time once nursing courses get clinical-heavy in the third semester.

Curious how Indiana compares to other big states? See cna programs in california for a side-by-side comparison of training rules, exam structure, and average pay across the country.

What to expect on your first CNA shift

Most new Indiana CNAs walk into a long-term care facility on day one and feel overwhelmed. That's normal. You will be assigned between 8 and 12 residents per shift at a typical Hoosier nursing home — sometimes more on overnights.

Your day starts with morning report from the off-going shift. Then it's vital signs, ADLs (activities of daily living — bathing, dressing, toileting), breakfast service, lab and therapy escorts, charting, and family-call interruptions. Lunch sits somewhere in the middle if you're lucky.

The hardest part of week one is time pressure. Twelve residents, two hours to wake everyone up, get them washed and dressed, and to the dining room. You'll feel slow. By week three you find your rhythm and the senior CNAs stop hovering.

The most important habit you can build in those first weeks: documentation. Indiana surveyors look at charting every quarter. "Not charted, not done" is a real rule at every facility. Use the point-of-care system as soon as a task is finished, not at the end of shift.

Ready to take the leap?

Indiana sets up new CNAs well. Tuition is low, programs are everywhere, free routes exist, and the job is waiting on the other side. Whether you choose Ivy Tech in your hometown, an Earn-and-Learn program with a nursing home chain, or a hospital-sponsored seat through IU Health, the timeline from application to first paycheck is shorter than almost any other healthcare career.

Pick a program this week. Submit your paperwork. Start studying the 22-skill checklist now — that's the single biggest predictor of first-attempt pass success. Indiana needs more CNAs, and within a few months that could be you.

One last tip: shadow a working CNA before you enroll if you can. Many Indianapolis and Fort Wayne nursing homes will let prospective students follow a shift for a couple of hours. Seeing the work in person tells you more about fit than any classroom session ever will. If the day energizes you instead of exhausting you, you've found the right career.