Washington, D.C. Massage License: Cost & Requirements (2026)

Last updated: September 11, 2026

If you are checking when your DC license expires, be careful which sentence you read. DC Health moved every professional license to a birth-month renewal cycle starting June 16, 2024 — but the Board of Massage Therapy’s own description on the same page still says licenses expire January 31 of odd years. Both statements are live on the site today. Below we explain which one governs and why. The rest is more settled: 500 in-class hours, $262 all in, and a Home Occupancy Permit if you plan to work from home.

The Renewal Date Changed — and the Old Date Is Still Published

What DC Health’s transition notice says: effective June 16, 2024, DC Health is transitioning all professional licenses, certificates and registrations to a birth-month renewal cycle. All credentials issued on or after that date expire on the last day of the holder’s birth month. The same applied to renewing licensees beginning September 2024. If your birthday falls in an odd year, your future renewals occur in odd years; the same for even years.

What the Board description on the same page says: “Licenses expire on January 31 of odd years.”

How to treat this. The transition notice is dated, specific, and later, and it says expressly that it applies to all new and renewal applicants — so the birth-month rule is the operative one. The January 31 line is legacy text that has not been updated. But since your own transition date depends on when your last credential was issued or renewed, the only reliable answer is the expiration date printed on your license. Check that, not either sentence.

There is one-time relief on continuing education for people caught mid-transition. All DC Health boards approved accepting 50 percent of the continuing education requirement for licensees who received less than two years on their license term during the changeover. This applies only to the one-time transition. Two things are not reduced: the 2 hours of LGBTQ Cultural Competency and the 10 percent Public Health Priorities requirement remain due in full.

What DC Actually Requires

• 500 hours of in-class training from an approved or accredited educational institution under DC Municipal Regulations chapter 75.
• A minimum of 100 of those hours in Anatomy, Physiology and Kinesiology. The remaining 400 must be mostly massage therapy theory and practice, together with discretionary related coursework including professional ethics, business practices, health and hygiene, contraindications of massage, CPR and first aid.
• Pass the NCETMB — or another examination certified by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies and approved at the Board’s discretion. The Board considers results only after you have passed all parts of the examination, so a partial pass does not move your file forward.
• A criminal background check.
• An online application. DC Health stopped accepting paper applications on June 14, 2021; everything runs through its online licensing portal, with supplemental documents emailed or posted to the Board.

Be precise with the paperwork. DC Health warns that illegible applications, applications without required signatures, or applications with incorrect payment are returned in their entirety — including the payment. All fees are earned when paid and cannot be transferred or refunded except as specified; a refund after denial or withdrawal takes about six weeks.

Applications go to a Board meeting, so timing matters. Note a second stale-document trap here: the application instructions PDF says the Board normally meets the third Thursday of each month, but the Board voted on January 15, 2026 to move to the second Thursday of every other month, effective March 12, 2026. Meetings are now roughly every two months, which lengthens the wait if you miss one.

What It Costs

Item	Cost	Notes
Application fee	$85	Same for examination and endorsement routes
License fee	$177	Includes one new license print
Total due at application	$262	The amount that must be paid for the license to be processed
Duplicate license	$34 each	Needed to display a license at each office where you conduct business
Home Occupancy Permit	$25 + $25	Application and permit, if you practice from home — good for life
Massage school (500 hrs)	Tuition varies widely	The dominant cost
Continuing education	Varies	Includes 2 hours LGBTQ cultural competency and 10% public health priorities
DC LLC	See DLCP	Articles of organization filed with the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection

The duplicate-license rule is a real cost for multi-site practitioners. DC expects a license displayed at each office where you conduct business, and additional copies are $34 apiece. If you split your week between two studios, budget for the second copy rather than carrying one back and forth.

Before You Open a Practice: Premises, Background Checks and Out-of-State Licenses

Working from home: the Home Occupancy Permit

If you practice out of your home in the District, you need a Home Occupancy Permit in addition to your massage therapy license. You apply in person at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and the cost is $25 to apply plus $25 for the permit.

The good news is that it does not recur. DC Health’s own instructions say the permit is good for life once obtained, so you do not need to renew it — a rare one-and-done requirement in this profession. Bring your massage therapy license with you when you apply.

Beyond that, a commercial practice will also need the District’s general business licensing through the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, in the same way any DC business does. Sort the entity and the business licensing alongside the professional license rather than after it.

Does DC require a background check?

Yes — a criminal background check is part of the application package, alongside the application documents and the authorization to release information form that lets the Board discuss your file with a third party if you nominate one.

There is also an ongoing reporting duty that catches employers as well as therapists. Any health professional in the District — and any employer of a health professional — must report certain actions taken by or against that professional to the appropriate board within 10 business days. If you run a studio, that duty is yours, not only your therapists’.

Can you transfer an out-of-state massage license to DC?

Yes — DC’s fee matrix lists endorsement as a distinct application method, at the same $262. The application, license fee and processing are identical to the examination route, so there is no financial penalty either way.

What does not change under endorsement is the examination standard: you still need a passing result on the NCETMB or another NCCA-certified examination the Board approves, arranged so the testing service reports directly, and the Board still only considers results once all parts are passed.

The interstate compact is not an option here. As of August 2026 the District has no Interstate Massage Compact legislation, and the compact is not yet issuing multistate licenses anywhere.

Continuing Education: Two Requirements Unique to the District

Alongside its general continuing education requirement, DC imposes two obligations that most states do not — and both survived the renewal-cycle transition intact:

• 2 hours of LGBTQ Cultural Competency. This applies across DC health professions and cannot be reduced by the transition relief.
• 10 percent Public Health Priorities. DC Health identifies the qualifying public health issues by public notice — the current notice took effect October 1, 2025 — and 10 percent of your hours must address them. Check the notice in force for your renewal period, because the priorities change.

A recent rulemaking added three more conditions specific to massage therapists: continuing education must include hands-on massage-technique coursework; CPR and first aid certification must be completed in person rather than online; and that certification must be kept valid throughout the licensure period — not merely current on the day you renew. If your CPR card lapses mid-cycle and you renew it late, you have still been out of compliance in between.

How to Get Licensed, In Order

1. Confirm the school is approved or accredited under DCMR chapter 75 and delivers 500 in-class hours with at least 100 in anatomy, physiology and kinesiology.
2. Take CPR and first aid in person — and plan to keep them valid continuously, not just at renewal.
3. Sit the NCETMB or another approved NCCA-certified examination and pass every part before expecting the Board to act.
4. Complete the criminal background check.
5. Apply online with $262 — paper is not accepted — and check the signatures and payment carefully, because errors return the whole package.
6. Watch the Board calendar. Meetings are now the second Thursday of every other month, so a missed cycle costs about two months.
7. If you will work from home, get the Home Occupancy Permit from DCRA — in person, $50 all in, and never again.
8. Order a duplicate license for each additional office at $34, and form the entity behind the practice.

Staying Licensed

Renew online through DC Health’s licensing portal. Paper renewals, like paper applications, are no longer accepted.

Know your own expiration date. Because the District moved to birth-month renewals in stages — new credentials from June 16, 2024, renewals from September 2024 — two therapists licensed a year apart can be on different cycles. The date printed on your license is the authority.

Keep the Board’s records current. DC Health has a Change of Information form for reporting a name, address, email or phone number change, and correspondence goes to whatever address it holds. That matters more than usual here, because a renewal notice sent to a stale address does not excuse a lapse.

And remember the 10-business-day reporting duty if anything is taken by or against you professionally — or, if you employ therapists, against any of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does a DC massage therapy license expire?

This changed recently, and DC Health’s own website still carries both answers. Since June 16, 2024, DC Health has been moving every professional license to a birth-month cycle: credentials issued on or after that date expire on the last day of the holder’s birth month, and renewing licensees moved onto the same cycle from September 2024. If your birthday falls in an odd year, your renewals stay in odd years. The older rule — licenses expiring January 31 of odd years — still appears in the Board description on the same page, so check your own expiration date on your license rather than relying on either statement.

How many hours does DC require for a massage license?

500 in-class hours from an approved or accredited educational institution, of which a minimum of 100 hours must be anatomy, physiology and kinesiology. The remaining 400 must be mostly massage therapy theory and practice, plus related coursework including professional ethics, business practices, health and hygiene, contraindications of massage, CPR and first aid.

How much does a DC massage license cost?

$262 — an $85 application fee plus a $177 license fee. That total is identical whether you apply by examination or by endorsement. Two other costs catch people out: duplicate licenses are $34 each, and you need one for each office where you conduct business, and practicing from home requires a Home Occupancy Permit from DCRA at $25 to apply plus $25 for the permit.

Can you practice massage from home in Washington DC?

Yes, but you need a Home Occupancy Permit in addition to your license. You apply in person at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and it costs $25 to apply plus $25 for the permit. The useful part: the permit is good for life once obtained, so there is nothing to renew. Bring your massage therapy license with you when you apply.

What continuing education does DC require for massage therapists?

Beyond the general requirement, DC layers on two specific obligations that survive even the current transition relief: 2 hours of LGBTQ Cultural Competency, and 10 percent of your hours on Public Health Priorities identified by DC Health in a public notice. A recent rulemaking also requires hands-on massage-technique continuing education, and requires CPR and first aid certification to be completed in person and kept valid throughout the licensure period — not just current on renewal day.

Forming the company, taxes, insurance, and hiring are covered in our full guide to starting a business in Washington, D.C.

Sources

Source	What It Covers
DC Health — Massage Therapy Licensing	The June 16, 2024 birth-month renewal transition and the one-time continuing education relief, the LGBTQ cultural competency and public health priorities requirements, the rulemaking on hands-on and in-person CPR continuing education, the end of paper applications, the 10-business-day reporting duty, and the Board’s meeting schedule
DC Health — Massage Therapy Application Instructions	The 500-hour and 100-hour anatomy requirements, the NCETMB and NCCA examination rule, the $85 plus $177 fee matrix totaling $262, the $34 duplicate license fee, the Home Occupancy Permit and its lifetime validity, and the rules on returned applications and refunds
DC Board of Massage Therapy — regulations and policy statements	The DC Municipal Regulations for massage therapy, the continuing education policy, and the public notice identifying public health issues for continuing education
DC Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection — Corporate Registration	LLC formation filings and the District’s current fees