In addition to the Registered Dietitian credential, many states also have a state-specific credential, set in place by the state legislature. These credentials are conferred independently by the respective states, and are not under the jurisdiction of the Academy or the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). However depending on the state, it may be important for those practicing in Nutrition and Dietetics to acquire these credentials. Information from CDR about these credentials, state by state, is available here.

Information about the New York State Certified Dietitian Nutritionist (CDN) credential is available here.

Information about the Connecticut Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist (CD-N) credential is available here.

Dietetics and Nutrition Licensing was passed into law in New Jersey on 1/13/2020, by the State Legislature. Information about this is available here. Information as to how to obtain this credential in New Jersey is not presently available, as of April 2020. This page will be updated as soon as there is a link available to the New Jersey state office charged with administering this process.

State credentialing can be important to obtain after becoming a Registered Dietitian, but, since these are independent processes, a state credential may be obtained by someone who is not yet an RD.

State credentials usually require demonstration of education and practice experience similar to that of RDs, as well as taking and passing a credentialing examination, which may be the Registered Dietitian exam, or another similar exam.

This is important to prospective dietetic interns because according to the CDR, (personal communication 4/22/16) “an individual who has successfully completed the registration examination for dietitians for licensure purposes only may become registered after completing the supervised practice program without retaking the examination provided they complete the supervised practice requirements within five years of successful completion of the examination for licensure. If they took the examination and passed it for licensure purposes more than 5 years ago they must take it again upon completion of the dietetic internship program. Those who were grandfathered in as CDNs without being an RD have to complete all registration eligibility requirements and pass the examination before they can become an RD. The state board would have to determine whether or not a grandfathered CDN could be processed to take the examination for licensure purposes only.”

It should be noted that this does NOT apply if any other examination was taken as a qualifying examination for any state administered credential.

Documentation of learning experiences completed for these state credentials can be evaluated for consistency with current ACEND learning objectives through the Internship’s policy and procedure mechanism for Prior Assessed Learning (PAL) to decrease the number of hours of supervised practice required to complete the Internship. See this page for details about this Prior Assessed Learning credit.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.