CDMS Renewal

Certificants have two options to renew:

  1. Renewal by Continuing Education - Provide documentation of 80 clock hours of approved continuing education, of which 4 clock hours must be in ethics. All continuing education hours applied toward renewal must be earned and documented by the date of the year you are due to recertify.
  2. Re-examination - If you choose this option, you MUST take the exam in one of the scheduled exam windows in the year you are due to recertify. Renewal candidates are not allowed to defer taking the exam to a future date since their certification will have expired. 

Review the CDMS Guide for Candidate Recertification for complete details

Renewal Fees & Deadlines

There are three renewal periods each year: March, September, and December. You are required to renew your CDMS credential on the month and year your certification expires.

Below is the timeline for CDMS renewal windows

Certification expiration date March 31 September 30 December 31
Renewal application window opens February 1 August 1 November 1
Renewal application window closes March 31 September 30 December 31
Approval/denial notification April 30 October 31 January 31

Documenting your continuing education

All continuing education units should be tracked in your CDMS Dashboard. Please Login to your Account to access your Dashboard. Documentation must be uploaded via this online method. Unless requested, please do not submit paperwork to the CDMS administrative office.

It is the certificant's responsibility to maintain appropriate documentation for all CEU hours that are entered on their renewal application.

Your certification account information does not change, so when beginning the certification renewal process, please DO NOT create a new account. If you do not know your login information, please contact customer service at info@cdms.org or 844.681.8156.

Retirement Designation

CDMS certificants who are retiring from active practice may choose the retirement designation, which changes the CDMS certification to an honorary designation, the CDMS-R. CDMS-R status enables the individual to stay on CDMS’s email list to receive updates from the field of disability management. The fee for the CDMS-R status is  $100 every 5 years.

If your retirement status changes and you want to re-activate your CDMS credential, you must meet the criteria in effect at the time you were scheduled to renew. This would include completion of all CE credits and meeting all ethics requirements, in addition to paying the renewal fee when you reinstate. Another option to reinstate is to retake the CDMS exam.

If you believe that you may provide consulting or other services in the future using your CDMS certification, you should NOT select the retirement designation, but should continue to maintain the CDMS certification.

For those CDMS-Rs that decide to reinstate their CDMS as outlined above, your effective certification start and end dates will be as follows:

Reinstatement Month Start Date End Date
April - July Date of Reinstatement September 30
August - November Date of Reinstatement December 31
December - March Date of Reinstatement March 31

Retirement status is valid for 5 years. At the end of the period, those who have chosen the retirement designation have the option to renew as a “retired CDMS” or renew as a “CDMS” per the guidelines above.