NBRC Renewal 2026: Credential Maintenance, CE and Fees

What are the three NBRC renewal options?

Take the quarterly assessments for your credentials and, if your results call for it, document the CE hours required
Retake and pass the exam for the highest credential you hold, during the last year of your term
Pass an NBRC credentialing exam you haven’t passed before, which restarts the five-year term for all your NBRC credentials

Each term runs five years from the end of the month you earned the credential. Credentials earned before July 1, 2002 don’t expire and aren’t part of the CMP, though holders can opt in to take assessments for CE credit.

NBRC: Credential Maintenance Program brochure (PDF) ↗Passing the Neonatal/Pediatric Specialty (NPS) exam restarts your term →Passing the Adult Critical Care Specialty (ACCS) exam restarts your term →

How the quarterly assessments work

For the Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) and Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credentials, each quarter’s assessment has 10 questions, 40 a year. They open on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 and stay open until January 31 of the following year. Each question has four options and must be answered within five minutes. It’s open book, so you can look things up, but no one else may help. You can use a phone, tablet or computer, and the timer can’t be paused once a question opens.

Your dashboard sorts your results into zones. In the green zone you document no CE, in the yellow zone 15 credits and in the red zone 30. Completing 90% of the CRT and RRT assessments also earns 6 Continuing Respiratory Care Education (CRCE) credits, with the certificate posted in the portal by February 28 each year.

NBRC: CMP Respiratory Therapist Assessment Detailed Content Outline (PDF) ↗

NBRC CEU requirements

Continuing education units (CEUs) have to be directly related to respiratory therapy: a lecture, panel, workshop, seminar, symposium or online course with an independently scored test. NBRC accepts any course your state licensing board accepts for respiratory care licensure. If your state has no course rules of its own, NBRC accepts credits from the American Association for Respiratory Care’s Continuing Respiratory Care Education program (AARC-CRCE).

If your state doesn’t give credit for them, NBRC counts 6 CEU hours for a Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) or Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course, up to 12 hours in a five-year term. College courses count if your state accepts them for CE. You enter CEUs only online, through Enter my CEUs in the portal, and the Recertify Now button works only in the last six months of your term.

NBRC audits renewals at random. If you’re picked, you get an email and four weeks to send copies of your CE certificates, including AARC transcripts.

NBRC renewal fees

Item	Fee
CMP fee, each year from 2027	$30
CMP fee, each year before 2027	$25
Reinstatement within six months	$250
Renewing by exam	Exam fee only

From payment year 2027 the CMP fee comes to $150 over the five-year term, collected in yearly payments. If you skip a year, you pay for the missed years before you recertify. If you renew by exam, the exam application and fee are all you send.

NBRC: Credential Maintenance Program FAQs ↗

If your credential expires

Within six months of the expiration date, you can enter your CEUs online and pay the $250 reinstatement fee, as long as the CE was earned during your term. After six months, you have to apply as a first-time candidate, meet the admission rules in force then and pass the exam again. With more than one expired credential, you pass every exam again.

NBRC mails reminders one year, six months, 90 days and 30 days before your expiration date, and posts them in the portal. It considers extensions for personal emergencies case by case.

Your state license is separate. NBRC’s brochure says many states require you to keep your NBRC credential to keep your license, and your state requires CE for the license even if your assessments mean NBRC needs none. Check with your state’s licensing agency.

NBRC: State licensure agencies ↗Your NBRC login and contacts →NBRC credential verification →

Sources: NBRC and 4 more. Checked October 2026.