South Dakota Certified Nurse-Midwife license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

South Dakota does not require continuing education for CNM license renewal, which happens every two years. Licensure as a certified nurse midwife is renewed every two years. ARSD 20:62:02:05 ties the advanced practice expiration date to the registered nurse license renewal period for a nurse who holds an active South Dakota registered nurse license, and ARSD 20:48:03:10 says an initial license expires on the licensee's birth date in the second calendar year following issuance and biennially on the licensee's birth date after that. A nurse midwife practicing on a multistate registered nurse privilege from another party state instead expires on the second birthday after the nurse midwife license was issued. The board sends a renewal notice at least ninety days before expiration, but failing to receive it does not excuse a late renewal, and a renewal fee delivered or postmarked after the filing date in the notice is not accepted and the license lapses.

South Dakota Certified Nurse-Midwife renewal and continuing education rules

"Not stated" means the board's pages and rules we read do not address it. We do not fill in typical values.

South Dakota sets no continuing education hour requirement for the certified nurse midwife license, and none for the underlying registered nurse license either, so there is no layering question here: nothing stacks, nothing replaces, and there is no parallel clock. ARSD 20:62:02:06 lists everything a nurse midwife files at renewal: evidence of holding an unencumbered South Dakota registered nurse license or privilege to practice, evidence of current certification as set out in ARSD 20:62:02:02(3), an affidavit that the licensee has committed no act of misconduct as set out in SDCL 36-9A-29, and the fee. No hour count appears anywhere in that rule or in SDCL chapter 36-9A. The certification condition is the substantive one: 20:62:02:02(3) requires evidence that the applicant passed a nationally recognized certification examination approved by the board that is specific to the applicant's advanced practice registered nurse role and educational preparation, and that the applicant maintains current certification. For a nurse midwife that is nurse midwifery certification, and it must be current at every renewal. A person licensed under SDCL 36-9A-4 before June 26, 1996 is exempt from that certification requirement. Because the certification requirement is a condition of renewal rather than a stated substitute for state hours, and because there are no state hours to substitute for, no alternatives are recorded.

Required CE topics for South Dakota certified nurse-midwifes

The South Dakota Board of Nursing pages and rules we read do not mandate specific subject areas for this license type. Hours may be in any approved subject.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a South Dakota CNM need to renew?

South Dakota does not require continuing education for CNM license renewal, which happens every two years. South Dakota sets no continuing education hour requirement for the certified nurse midwife license, and none for the underlying registered nurse license either, so there is no layering question here: nothing stacks, nothing replaces, and there is no parallel clock. ARSD 20:62:02:06 lists everything a nurse midwife files at renewal: evidence of holding an unencumbered South Dakota registered nurse license or privilege to practice, evidence of current certification as set out in ARSD 20:62:02:02(3), an affidavit that the licensee has committed no act of misconduct as set out in SDCL 36-9A-29, and the fee. No hour count appears anywhere in that rule or in SDCL chapter 36-9A. The certification condition is the substantive one: 20:62:02:02(3) requires evidence that the applicant passed a nationally recognized certification examination approved by the board that is specific to the applicant's advanced practice registered nurse role and educational preparation, and that the applicant maintains current certification. For a nurse midwife that is nurse midwifery certification, and it must be current at every renewal. A person licensed under SDCL 36-9A-4 before June 26, 1996 is exempt from that certification requirement. Because the certification requirement is a condition of renewal rather than a stated substitute for state hours, and because there are no state hours to substitute for, no alternatives are recorded.

How often does a South Dakota CNM license need to be renewed?

Certified Nurse-Midwife licenses in South Dakota renew every two years. Licensure as a certified nurse midwife is renewed every two years. ARSD 20:62:02:05 ties the advanced practice expiration date to the registered nurse license renewal period for a nurse who holds an active South Dakota registered nurse license, and ARSD 20:48:03:10 says an initial license expires on the licensee's birth date in the second calendar year following issuance and biennially on the licensee's birth date after that. A nurse midwife practicing on a multistate registered nurse privilege from another party state instead expires on the second birthday after the nurse midwife license was issued. The board sends a renewal notice at least ninety days before expiration, but failing to receive it does not excuse a late renewal, and a renewal fee delivered or postmarked after the filing date in the notice is not accepted and the license lapses.

Sources

Last verified September 10, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• SDCL Chapter 36-9A, Certified Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse Midwives (Sections 36-9A-1, 36-9A-4, 36-9A-5, 36-9A-11, 36-9A-13, 36-9A-22, 36-9A-23, 36-9A-47)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 10, 2026
• ARSD Article 20:62, Nurse Practitioners and Midwives (Chapter 20:62:02, licensure, expiration dates and renewal)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 10, 2026
• ARSD Article 20:48, Nursing (20:48:03:09 and 20:48:03:10, renewal of license and biennial expiration on birth date)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 10, 2026
• SDCL Chapter 36-9C, Certified Professional Midwives (the separate credential and separate board)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 10, 2026
• Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) Renewal, South Dakota Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• CNM practice, South Dakota Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 10, 2026

South Dakota has a distinct certified nurse midwife license and the regulator is the Board of Nursing, the common pattern, though with a South Dakota twist: the nurse midwife is licensed under its own statutory chapter, SDCL 36-9A, Certified Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse Midwives, rather than under the general nursing chapter. SDCL 36-9A-5 states that the practice of a certified nurse midwife is regulated by the South Dakota Board of Nursing, SDCL 36-9A-1(7) defines an advanced practice registered nurse as a person licensed by the board in the role of a certified nurse practitioner or a certified nurse midwife, and SDCL 36-9A-11 gives the licensee the title certified nurse midwife, abbreviated CNM. That establishes that the rule read here governs the nurse midwife and not another kind of midwife. South Dakota separately licenses certified professional midwives under SDCL chapter 36-9C through a distinct Board of Certified Professional Midwives, and SDCL 36-9A-47 says nothing in the nurse midwife chapter restricts a certified professional midwife from practicing under chapter 36-9C. None of chapter 36-9C is recorded here. On certification: ARSD 20:62:02:02(3) requires current certification by a nationally recognized certification examination approved by the board specific to the licensee's role, and ARSD 20:62:02:06(2) makes evidence of that certification a renewal item, so certification is a renewal condition. Neither the rule text nor the board pages read name the American Midwifery Certification Board, so no certifying body is named here, and no AMCB module or credit total is recorded. The South Dakota Legislature website renders its statute and rule text through JavaScript, so the text quoted above was read through the same official host's JSON endpoints under sdlegislature.gov; the human readable citations are the URLs recorded. The board's own CNM renewal page states only the ninety five dollar fee and that the online system renews active licenses, and its CNM practice page covers scope, collaboration, telehealth, out of hospital birth and prescribing rather than renewal, so the renewal and continuing education findings rest on the statute and the administrative rules. This record agrees with the existing sd-rn, sd-np and sd-crna records on the biennial birth date cycle and on there being no continuing education hour requirement.