Every registered nurse in New York who is a mandated reporter has until November 17, 2026 to complete the state's updated child abuse identification and reporting training, and that includes nurses who took the old course years ago. The update adds one topic: how to recognize abuse or maltreatment in a child with an intellectual or developmental disability. For many nurses it is a 15-minute addendum. For others it is the full three-hour course. Both are available free.
What changed
Chapter 25 of the Laws of 2024 amended Social Services Law § 413, the section that lists New York's mandated reporters and requires their training. The amendment directs the Office of Children and Family Services to update the training so it covers identifying an abused or maltreated child who has an intellectual or developmental disability, as defined in the Mental Hygiene Law. The statute gives existing mandated reporters two years to take the updated training, and the State Education Department's Office of the Professions has set that deadline as November 17, 2026.
Registered nurses are named in the statute's list of mandated reporters, and the Office of the Professions lists both registered nurses and nurse practitioners among the professions that need the coursework. Licensed practical nurses are not named in either list.
Who needs the full course and who needs the addendum
The Office of the Professions says that anyone who completed mandated reporter training between November 1, 2022 and August 31, 2025 may complete a short addendum of about 15 minutes on the new topic instead of retaking the whole course. Approved providers began offering the updated full course on September 1, 2025, so anyone trained on or after that date already has the new content.
The state's pages do not describe a shorter route for nurses trained before November 1, 2022. For them, the updated full course is the option that clearly meets the requirement. Most New York RNs fall into this group: the Office of the Professions notes that nurses who graduated from a New York-registered program after September 1, 1990 completed the original coursework as part of their education, which means many working nurses have not taken a separate mandated reporter course at all.
The free way to do it
The Office of Children and Family Services runs a free online course at nysmandatedreporter.org, open around the clock. The site says training is available to all mandated reporters in New York at no cost. The self-directed course takes about three hours and has been updated with the disability content. Nurses who took that same online course between November 1, 2022 and August 31, 2025 take the addendum through the same system, signing in with the email address they used the first time.
On completion, the course sends the Certification of Completion to the State Education Department electronically. The Office of the Professions describes this certificate as the documentation it accepts, issued by the provider within ten days.
What is still unclear
Neither the Office of the Professions nor the training site says how an already-licensed nurse will be asked to show the 2026 update, or what happens to a nurse who misses the date. The original requirement was tied to initial licensure, and the Office of the Professions still describes it as a one-time requirement. The statute's two-year window is what makes this update different. Until the state says more, the safe reading is simple: take the addendum or the updated course before November 17 and keep the certificate.
The Office of the Professions also describes an exemption from the coursework for practitioners with no professional contact with people under 18, or with adults with handicapping conditions in residential care. Nurses who believe it applies should confirm with the Office of the Professions rather than assume.
Why this matters for nurses
In my years as a nurse and now as a unit manager, the requirements that catch people are never the big ones. They are the one-time items everyone assumes they finished in school, and this is exactly that kind of requirement. If you are a New York RN or NP, spend two minutes working out which group you are in. If you took the online course in the last few years, the addendum is shorter than most annual competencies. If you have not taken a mandated reporter course since nursing school, block out an evening for the free three-hour course, and do it before the November rush.
This is one of several required topics New York nurses deal with. Our free CEU directory shows each of New York's required topics and which have a free course, and the New York licensure page covers renewal and the infection control coursework due every four years.