What Continuing Education a DSD Needs to Stay Certified

The honest answer untangles three different things people call "DSD CE" — the education to become one, the CE to keep your licence, and the facility program that renews.

Published 23 August 2026 · 7 min read · By Damien Draconum, RN · Written for California LVNs, LPNs and RNs

"How many CEUs do I need to keep my DSD certification?" is one of the most common questions in this role, and it has a frustrating answer: the question mixes together three separate obligations that people lump under one phrase. Untangle them and the picture is clear — and less onerous than it sounds.

The three things people call "DSD CE"

There is no single periodic "DSD renewal exam" you re-sit to stay a Director of Staff Development. What actually applies to a working DSD is these three, and they are governed separately:

What	Who sets it	When
The education to qualify as a DSD	22 CCR § 71829(d)(2)	24 hours, once, within six months of taking the role (one pathway only)
CE to keep your nursing licence	Your licensing board (BRN or BVNPT)	Every renewal cycle, ongoing
Renewing the facility's in-service program	22 CCR § 71847(h)	Every two years

1. The 24 hours is to become a DSD, not to stay one

Section 71829 offers two ways to qualify. Pathway (d)(1) rests entirely on experience and requires no continuing education at all. Pathway (d)(2) requires 24 hours of continuing education in planning, implementing and evaluating educational programs in nursing, completed within six months of employment and before teaching a certification program.

Read that carefully, because it is the source of most of the confusion: the 24 hours is an entry requirement on one of the two pathways, completed once. It is not an annual quota you top up to "stay certified." Your DSD approval and your course-completion certificate do not expire on a clock the way a licence does.

2. The CE that never stops is your licence CE

The one genuinely ongoing continuing-education duty a DSD has is the same one every California nurse has: the CE required to renew the underlying RN or LVN licence. You are a DSD because you are a licensed nurse; let the licence lapse and the DSD role goes with it.

California registered nurses renew through the Board of Registered Nursing and licensed vocational nurses through the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians, each on a two-year cycle with its own contact-hour requirement. Because those figures and their exemptions are set by the boards and can change, confirm the current requirement directly with your board rather than relying on a number you read once — that is the obligation that actually has a recurring deadline attached to it.

Usefully, the work a DSD does often generates qualifying licence CE in its own right, and the subjects a DSD teaches — adult learning, competency evaluation, infection control, dementia care — are frequently the same subjects that count toward a nursing licence renewal. The two obligations overlap more than they compete.

3. The two-year renewal is the program's, not yours

The remaining "every two years" that people attach to the DSD is real, but it belongs to the program, not the person. 22 CCR § 71847(h) requires a facility's in-service training program to be renewed with the Department every two years. That is a facility obligation the DSD administers — a renewal of the approved program, not a re-certification of you. Approval lapses quietly if it is missed, which is a poor thing to discover during a survey, so it is worth a diary entry; but it is not a personal CE quota.

Putting it together

To become a DSD on pathway (d)(2): 24 hours of qualifying education, once.
To stay a DSD: keep your RN or LVN licence current, with whatever CE your board requires each cycle.
To keep the program valid: renew the facility's in-service program with the Department every two years.

If you are at step one — you need the 24 hours to qualify — that is exactly what this course provides: 24 contact hours, self-paced, ending in a verifiable certificate you can attach to your CDPH 279 application.

The full course goes considerably deeper

DSD Certify is a self-paced online course covering 24 contact hours, written for California skilled nursing facilities and sourced to the regulations themselves — Title 22, 42 CFR Part 483 and the CMS surveyor guidance. You finish with a certificate carrying a verification code.

Enroll for $79 See what it covers

The licence, the two experience pathways, the education and the CDPH 279 application, in order.

What Title 22 § 71829 requires of a Director of Staff Development

Qualification pathways, Department approval and the required hours by bed count.

California's 24-hour in-service rule, and how it differs from federal law

Where the 24 hours comes from, what the federal floor is, and why the two are not the same duty.

The records a DSD has to be able to produce

What a surveyor asks for, which F-tags land on your desk, and why attendance is not competence.

The CDPH 279 DSD application, walked through

Which form, which unit, what to prepare, and the review clocks.

DSD vs. in-service coordinator: what is the difference?

One is a Department-approved role; the other is a job title for the function.

This page is general information about California regulation, not legal advice. Regulations change; where a decision matters, read the current text of the section itself. Every citation here was checked against the official California Code of Regulations, the Code of Federal Regulations, or the CMS State Operations Manual.