How to Start a CNA School in Arkansas (2026 Guide)

Arkansas has more than 200 nursing homes, a federal rule that bars facilities from keeping an uncertified aide past 120 days, and a steady shortage of certified nursing assistants to go around. That math is why CNA training is a genuine business opportunity here — and why facilities will take your calls when you're looking for clinical sites and hiring partners.

The state's process has a structure most guides miss: the Arkansas Department of Human Services approves your training program (through its Office of Long Term Care and the Nursing Assistant Training Program office), but if you're a private school charging tuition, you also need a license from the State Board of Private Career Education — and the DHS rules themselves spell out the order: DHS approval first, then the SBPCE license. Two agencies, one sequence, and a set of 2024 rule revisions that changed instructor caps, class ratios, and virtual-instruction rules.

We work with CNA and allied-health schools every day — running their enrollment, student records, and communications — so we've watched founders navigate exactly this kind of two-agency path. Here's the Arkansas roadmap. Fair warning before we start: this is operator experience, not legal advice. Rules change; verify with the agencies below.

Quick Facts: CNA School Requirements in Arkansas

Item	Requirement
Total training hours	90 minimum
Hour split	74 classroom/lab + 16 supervised clinical in a nursing facility (fixed by rule)
Credential issued	Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Approving agency	Arkansas DHS — Office of Long Term Care / NATP office (DPSQA)
Application	Form DMS-724, approved before your first course starts
Also required	SBPCE private career school license (tuition-charging schools)
Exam vendor	D&S Diversified Technologies (Headmaster), TMU platform
Registry	Arkansas Nurse Aide Registry (Headmaster, under DHS contract)
Typical time to approval	DHS answers within 15 business days of a complete application; 3–6 months end-to-end with SBPCE
Instructor rule (short version)	RN Primary Instructor with 2 years nursing incl. 1 year LTC in the last 5; LPNs may assist

Step 1: Form Your Business Entity

Arkansas makes formation cheap and fast. File a domestic LLC Certificate of Organization with the Arkansas Secretary of State's Business & Commercial Services (BCS) division — $45 online, $50 on paper. Mark your calendar for the $150 flat annual franchise tax, due to the SOS every May 1; it's the most commonly forgotten obligation for young Arkansas LLCs, and penalties stack.

Then the standard moves: free EIN from the IRS, a dedicated business bank account, and any city or county business license your locality requires.

Step 2: Register for State Taxes

Register with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration through the Arkansas Taxpayer Access Point (ATAP). Arkansas only taxes enumerated services, and instructional services aren't on the list — so your tuition is generally not sales-taxable. Tangible goods are a different story: textbooks, supply kits, and scrubs sold separately to students are taxable retail sales. Decide early whether to bundle materials into tuition or sell them separately and collect tax, and get a written DFA opinion if you want certainty.

When you hire instructors, add withholding registration through ATAP and unemployment insurance with the state.

Step 3: Secure Your Location, Classroom, and Skills Lab

Arkansas's 74 classroom/lab hours mean your students spend most of the program in your building, so the space matters. The 2024 rules set class-size caps that shape your floor plan: a maximum of 24 trainees per instructor for classroom work and 12 per instructor for skills training. Outfit the lab like a resident room — beds, a mannequin, wheelchair, gait belts, a working sink, vitals equipment, linens, and personal-care supplies — because your DMS-724 curriculum outline has to show where and how lab hours happen.

Know that DHS can inspect "at any reasonable time," conducts onsite or virtual reviews after initial approval, and makes unannounced visits at least once every two years. The classroom you describe on paper is the classroom they expect to walk into. Check zoning and occupancy with your city before signing anything.

Step 4: Apply for DHS Approval — Then the SBPCE License

Arkansas program approval runs on the state's long-standing NATP rules (Agency 016.06, revised effective July 1, 2024). The heart of it:

• The form: DMS-724, Application for Program Approval, completed and signed by your Primary Instructor and approved by DHS before your first course starts. Get forms from the DPSQA website or by emailing the NATP certification office.
• The packet: a curriculum outline with lesson plans and modules showing classroom, lab, and clinical hours in a nursing home; Primary Instructor and additional-instructor resumes documenting long-term care experience; professional license verification; and — for renewals and new tuition-charging programs — a notarized copy of your SBPCE school license.
• The clock — and it's a good one: DHS mails a deficiency notice within 15 business days if your application is incomplete, and issues approval or disapproval within 15 business days of receiving a complete application. That's one of the fastest review commitments in the country. The variable is you: incomplete packets restart the process.
• Fees: the rules charge no DHS fee for program approval. Budget zero, but confirm with the NATP office.
• Changes: the 2024 rules define "major changes" — a new instructor, site, delivery mode, or clinical site — that require re-application. Plan staffing changes with that in mind.

The second license. The DHS rules state it plainly: programs offered to the public and charging tuition must be approved by DHS before they can be licensed through the State Board of Private Career Education, administered by the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE). So the sequence is DHS approval → SBPCE license → operate. SBPCE licensure includes a surety bond — 10% of prior-year gross tuition, with a $5,000 minimum ($10,000 for schools with no prior-year tuition) — plus a license fee set as a percentage of tuition. Statutory exemptions exist, but the CNA-specific one covers only training programs majority-owned by operators of five or more Arkansas-licensed nursing facilities — a nursing-home chain's in-house school, not an independent one. State colleges and facilities training their own employees are also exempt. A freestanding school charging tuition should assume it needs both approvals.

Step 5: Hire a Qualified Primary Instructor (and Bench)

Arkansas's instructor structure has specific titles and limits:

• Primary Instructor (PI): an RN licensed in Arkansas (or holding compact privileges), no current board discipline, with at least 2 years of nursing experience including 1 year of long-term care nursing within the last 5 years. The PI must also show supervisory experience plus either teaching experience or a certificate from an instructor workshop. One PI per program — and under the 2024 rules, a PI may oversee a maximum of four sites.
• Additional instructors: RN or LPN, Arkansas-licensed, with at least 1 year of LTC experience, working under the PI's general supervision. LPNs can teach, run skills training, and supervise clinicals — but all final skills check-offs must be approved by the RN Primary Instructor, and an LPN cannot serve as PI.
• Guest speakers: pharmacists, dietitians, social workers, and other professionals with a year of experience may teach their specialty topics.
• In facility-based programs, the DON may generally supervise but is barred from doing the actual training.

Recruit your PI early — their signature is literally on the application — and keep a qualified backup instructor identified, because an instructor change is a "major change" requiring re-application paperwork.

Step 6: Build or Buy a State-Compliant Curriculum

Arkansas fixes the split by rule: 90 total hours, at least 74 hours of classroom/lab training plus 16 hours of supervised practical (clinical) training in a nursing facility. Structure to bake in:

• The first 16 classroom hours (the rules' units 1–11: communication, infection control, safety, residents' rights, and related fundamentals) must be completed before any direct resident contact.
• The 16 clinical hours happen in a real nursing facility, with residents.
• These are minimums — you can run more hours, and many schools add exam-prep time.

A distinctive 2024 addition: Arkansas now has a formal virtual instruction framework — but it applies to the lecture portion only. Skills and clinical are strictly in-person, and virtual classrooms still count against the 24:1 ratio. If you want a hybrid program, Arkansas is one of the states that will actually let you, within those lines. Your DMS-724 must present the full curriculum outline with lesson plans and module hours, so build the document once, properly, and reuse it every renewal.

Step 7: Set Up Clinical Site Agreements

Your 16 clinical hours must occur in a nursing facility, so a signed arrangement with at least one nursing home is essential — and naming your clinical site is part of your application, with clinical-site changes counting as major changes requiring re-application. Arkansas's 200+ nursing homes give you options most states can't match, but the good facilities in your county may already host a competitor's students.

Pitch the partnership as a pipeline: their floor gets supervised student help during rotations, and they get first look at your graduates — worth a lot to administrators staring down the federal 120-day certification deadline for new aides. Expect requirements for TB tests, immunizations, background checks, and liability insurance. Get ratios, schedules, and supervision expectations in writing, and calendar the agreement's renewal date.

Step 8: Understand Testing and the Arkansas Nurse Aide Registry

Arkansas contracts both testing and registry services to D&S Diversified Technologies (Headmaster), which runs everything through its TMU (TestMaster Universe) platform. Your program enters candidates in TMU; students take a knowledge test plus a hands-on skills evaluation, with a combined fee in the neighborhood of $125 (confirm current pricing with Headmaster — and note that facilities must cover exam costs for aides they employ or have offered jobs, under federal rule).

Passing places graduates on the Arkansas Nurse Aide Registry, which Headmaster maintains under contract with DHS — employers verify certification there. Established schools can work with Headmaster to host skills testing on-site, which shortens your graduates' time-to-certification and is a real competitive advantage worth pursuing once you have a cohort or two behind you.

Watch your pass rates from day one. They're your best marketing asset and your early-warning system for curriculum gaps.

Step 9: Set Up Enrollment, Payments, and Student Records

Count the record-keeping surfaces an Arkansas school touches: DMS-724 and its curriculum attachments, task performance records (DMS-741), attendance across 90 required hours, TMU candidate entries, SBPCE licensing and bond paperwork, immunization and background-check documents for clinical sites — all of it producible when DHS shows up unannounced, which the rules say will happen at least every two years.

Most founders start with spreadsheets, a form builder, a payment app, and a filing cabinet. It holds until the first real cohort. This is the job Transition was built for: branded online enrollment, payment plans, attendance and grade tracking per student, e-signed enrollment agreements and policies, automated onboarding emails and texts (immunization checklists go out the moment someone enrolls), and end-of-course surveys — one system instead of five. The schools we work with spend their hours teaching, not reconstructing records before an inspection.

Step 10: Launch With a Local Marketing Plan

• Google Business Profile first. "CNA classes in Little Rock" (or Fort Smith, or Jonesboro) is how students find you. Collect reviews at every graduation.
• The Arkansas Division of Workforce Services (under the Department of Commerce) runs roughly two dozen Arkansas Workforce Centers, and approved CNA programs get listed on the state's eligible training provider list through ARJobLink — the gateway to WIOA-funded students whose tuition arrives without a payment plan.
• Employer partnerships: the 120-day federal rule means every nursing home is perpetually shopping for certified aides. Your clinical site is your first hiring partner; some facilities will sponsor students outright.
• A simple one-page website — schedule, price, online application — and fast follow-up. The school that answers first usually enrolls the student.

What It Really Costs

Realistic estimates for a freestanding Arkansas school (ranges, not quotes):

Item	Estimated range
LLC formation + first-year franchise tax	$200 – $300
SBPCE license fee + surety bond premium	$600 – $2,500
Liability insurance (annual)	$1,500 – $4,000
Rent deposit + build-out	$3,000 – $12,000
Skills lab equipment	$6,000 – $18,000
Curriculum, textbooks, materials	$1,500 – $5,000
Instructor payroll before revenue	$5,000 – $15,000
DHS application fee	$0 (confirm)
Marketing at launch	$1,500 – $5,000
Realistic total	$19,000 – $60,000

Arkansas is one of the cheaper states to launch in: low formation costs, no DHS application fee, modest real estate, and a fast review clock that shortens your pre-revenue runway.

How Long It Takes

Plan on 3 to 6 months — genuinely faster than most states, thanks to DHS's 15-business-day commitment on complete applications. The variance drivers: how long your curriculum package and instructor documentation take to assemble, the SBPCE licensing step (bond underwriting and board processing add weeks), and clinical site negotiations. Founders who show up with a complete DMS-724 and a signed facility agreement can realistically enroll their first cohort inside a semester.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Skipping the SBPCE license. The DHS rules require tuition-charging schools to get licensed through the State Board of Private Career Education after DHS approval — and renewals require the notarized license copy. The chain-ownership exemption almost certainly doesn't cover you.
• Starting class before approval. The DMS-724 must be approved before your first course begins. Arkansas's review is fast; don't jump it.
• Treating instructor or site changes casually. Under the 2024 rules those are "major changes" requiring re-application — a surprise resignation becomes a compliance event if you haven't planned a bench.
• Missing the May 1 franchise tax. $150 flat, every year, to the Secretary of State. Penalties compound quietly.
• Putting skills content online. Arkansas's virtual framework covers the lecture portion only; virtual skills instruction is a deficiency waiting to be cited.
• A stale clinical agreement. Your named nursing facility is part of your approval; if the relationship lapses, so does your compliance.

FAQ

How much does it cost to start a CNA school in Arkansas? Most freestanding schools land between roughly $19,000 and $60,000 before first revenue — among the lower startup costs in the country — with lab equipment, insurance, and pre-revenue payroll as the big lines. Facility-based programs cost less but can't charge their own employees tuition.

Do I need to be a nurse to open a CNA school in Arkansas? No — but your Primary Instructor must be an Arkansas-licensed RN with two years of nursing experience including a year of long-term care within the last five, and the PI signs your state application. LPNs can serve as additional instructors.

How many hours is CNA training in Arkansas? 90 hours minimum: at least 74 hours of classroom and lab instruction plus 16 hours of supervised clinical practice in a nursing facility, with the first 16 classroom hours completed before students touch a resident.

Can CNA classes be online in Arkansas? Partially — the 2024 rules allow virtual instruction for the lecture portion only. Skills training and the 16 clinical hours must be in person, and class-size ratios apply to virtual classrooms too.

Who runs the CNA exam in Arkansas? D&S Diversified Technologies (Headmaster) administers both the knowledge and skills exams through its TMU platform and maintains the Arkansas Nurse Aide Registry under contract with DHS. Plan on roughly $125 in testing fees per candidate, and confirm current pricing.

How long does DHS approval take in Arkansas? The rules commit DHS to answering within 15 business days of a complete application (and flagging deficiencies within 15 business days of an incomplete one). End-to-end — including the SBPCE license and clinical agreements — three to six months is realistic.

Do nursing homes running their own CNA classes need the career school license? Facilities training their own employees are exempt from SBPCE licensure and can't charge those employees tuition or fees anyway — including textbooks. The dual-license requirement applies to schools offering training to the public for tuition.

Disclaimer

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Arkansas revised its NATP rules in 2024 and will revise them again; fees and forms change too. Verify current requirements with the DHS Office of Long Term Care/NATP office, the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (SBPCE), and the Secretary of State before spending money, and consider an hour with a local attorney and CPA.

The Paperwork Gets You Open. The Systems Keep You Open.

Arkansas's fast review clock can have you teaching within months — then unannounced inspections, TMU records, and renewals become your daily reality. See how Transition runs enrollment, student records, messaging, and compliance for CNA schools like yours at jointransition.com.