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Home care staff requirements in Kansas

Kansas uses one license, the home health agency license, for agencies that provide skilled home health services, non-medical supportive care, or attendant care. Workers with direct access need a state criminal history eligibility determination from KDADS, and home health aides must be certified nurse aides who finish a 20-hour home health aide course and a state test. Supportive care workers must show competency before working alone and be re-checked every year.

Licenses

• Kansas requires any agency that provides home health services, supportive care services, or attendant care services to hold a home health agency license (K.S.A. 65-5102).
• Supportive care services are non-medical help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, eating, medication reminders, transferring and toileting that do not need a nurse's supervision (K.S.A. 65-5101).
• The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) handles home health agency licensing and the criminal history checks for agency workers (K.S.A. 65-5102; K.S.A. 65-5117).

Background checks

• An agency may not knowingly employ anyone with adverse findings on a state or national registry or a conviction for listed serious crimes such as murder, abuse or mistreatment of a dependent adult, or sex offenses (K.S.A. 65-5117(b)(1)).
• Some other felony convictions, such as certain drug, theft and Medicaid fraud crimes, bar employment until six years after the sentence is completed unless KDADS grants a waiver (K.S.A. 65-5117(b)(2)-(3)).
• The agency must request an eligibility determination on criminal history from KDADS for each applicant (K.S.A. 65-5117(e)).
• KDADS may require applicants to be fingerprinted for a state and national criminal history check, and an applicant has 20 calendar days after authorization to submit fingerprints to stay eligible for provisional work (K.S.A. 65-5117(d)(2)-(3)).
• An agency may hire an applicant on a one-time provisional basis for up to 60 calendar days while waiting for the KDADS result (K.S.A. 65-5117(e)).
• An agency does not have to run a new check on an applicant who had a check under this law within the past year (K.S.A. 65-5117(i)).

Training and competency

• Each home health aide must be a Kansas certified nurse aide in good standing on the nurse aide registry and complete a 20-hour home health aide course approved by the state (K.A.R. 28-51-113(a)).
• After the 20-hour course, each home health aide must pass a state test, and is then listed on the public nurse aide registry (K.A.R. 28-51-113(b)-(c)).
• A certified nurse aide enrolled in the 20-hour course may work as a home health aide trainee under a registered nurse, but must become certified within 90 days of the course start date, and trainee status is allowed only once (K.A.R. 28-51-113(d)).
• The agency's registered nurse must keep a state-approved form in the trainee's personnel file showing the trainee met minimum competencies (K.A.R. 28-51-113(d)(3)).
• Correspondence courses do not count as the 20-hour home health aide course (K.A.R. 28-51-113(f)).
• Each supportive care worker must show competency before working with a client without the manager present, and must be re-evaluated every year in 10 listed areas including communication, infection control, emergencies, client rights and safe personal care (K.A.R. 28-51-117(c)).
• Managers and supportive care workers must get ongoing training at least once a year on the services provided and equipment used, with the subject and date recorded in each worker's file (K.A.R. 28-51-117(d)).

Also in the personnel file

• Each home health aide must be supervised by a registered nurse and given written patient care instructions (K.A.R. 28-51-108).
• For home health patients who get only personal care, a supervisory visit must be made at least every 60 days; when nursing or therapy is provided, a supervisory visit is required every two weeks (K.A.R. 28-51-104(c)(1)(K)).
• An agency providing supportive care must have a manager available to workers at all times and must do an on-site supervision of each supportive care worker at least every three months (K.A.R. 28-51-117(e)).
• Supportive care workers must have written assignments prepared by a manager from the plan of care, reviewed at least every three months (K.A.R. 28-51-117(f)).

Common questions

Some rules for Kansas weren't confirmed from an official source. Check with the state before relying on this page.

Sources

• K.S.A. 65-5101, Definitions (Kansas Revisor of Statutes)
• K.S.A. 65-5102, License required (Kansas Revisor of Statutes)
• K.S.A. 65-5117, Background checks (Kansas Revisor of Statutes)
• K.A.R. 28-51-104, Home health services, HCBS, and supportive care services (Cornell LII)
• K.A.R. 28-51-108, Home health aide services (Cornell LII)
• K.A.R. 28-51-113, Home health aide qualifications (Cornell LII)
• K.A.R. 28-51-117, Supportive care services (Cornell LII)

This page summarizes state licensing rules in plain words, with links to the rules themselves. It is not legal advice, rules change, and your license type decides what applies: check the linked source and your licensing agency. Medicare-certified home health agencies also follow 42 CFR 484.80. Checked October 2026.

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