Best Cosmetology Programs

Licensing

How many cosmetology schools have a lapsed license?

Published 2026-08-31 ยท By the Best Cosmetology Programs editorial team

24% of the cosmetology schools on state board files have a lapsed license: 971 of 4,034 records across the 34 states whose files we read. A board's file is not a list of schools you can enroll in. It is every school record the board holds, and it keeps holding them after a school closes, lets its license lapse, changes hands or has the license taken away.

This matters because the license is what makes your clock hours count. Hours banked at a school that was not licensed while you were enrolled are hours the board will not accept toward your exam, so a directory that reprints the board file without reading its status column is quietly pointing readers at schools that cannot qualify them.

Which states publish the most lapsed cosmetology school records?

Illinois publishes the most lapsed records by share: 76% of the school records in its file are no longer current. That is not a fact about Illinois schools so much as about how completely Illinois publishes its history, which is the opposite of a criticism.

Share of published cosmetology school records that are no longer current, for the states publishing at least 20 records.

Why do some states show no lapsed schools at all?

Some states show no lapsed schools because their board publishes only its current roster and drops a school from the file when the license ends. A zero in that column is a fact about what the board publishes, not evidence that no school there has ever closed. Illinois and Delaware publish a status per record, so their history is visible; most boards publish a list, and presence on it is the whole of the claim.

State Licensed now All records Not current Status published by
Illinois 225 954 76% The board
Delaware 14 42 67% The board
Connecticut 91 117 22% The board
Texas 714 897 20% Derived from the roster or expiry date
North Dakota 4 5 20% The board
Vermont 9 10 10% The board
Alabama 52 53 2% The board
New Jersey 85 86 1% The board
Massachusetts 115 116 1% The board
Arkansas 56 56 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Arizona 123 123 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
California 281 281 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Colorado 58 58 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
District of Columbia 4 4 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Iowa 22 22 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Kansas 28 28 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Kentucky 53 53 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Louisiana 46 46 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Maryland 37 37 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Minnesota 42 42 0% The board
Missouri 84 84 0% The board
Mississippi 66 66 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
North Carolina 144 144 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
New Hampshire 11 11 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Nevada 23 23 0% The board
New York 80 80 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Ohio 191 191 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Oklahoma 78 78 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Oregon 37 37 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
South Dakota 5 5 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Tennessee 101 101 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Virginia 136 136 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
West Virginia 38 38 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date
Wyoming 10 10 0% Derived from the roster or expiry date

"Derived" means the board publishes a roster or an expiry date but not a status, so a school counted as licensed is one the board listed rather than one the board has called active.

Which states cannot be checked this way at all?

18 states cannot be checked this way, because their boards answer school queries one at a time rather than publishing a file that can be read end to end. There is no national registry of state-licensed cosmetology schools, so for those states this site links the board's own lookup rather than reprinting a commercial directory, which is where the stale records come from in the first place.

Each of those states still has a page here carrying its regulator, its hour requirement and its local pay: see the rankings index. Florida is typical of the group, answering queries through its own licensee lookup rather than a downloadable roster.

Common questions

Does a lapsed license mean the school closed?
A lapsed license does not always mean the school closed. Boards distinguish between a school that shut, one that stopped paying to renew, one whose ownership changed, and one the board sanctioned, and those are four different stories. What they share is that none of them is a school whose clock hours will count toward your exam today.
Why do these schools still appear in other directories?
Commercial school directories copy each other and rarely re-read the board file, so a school that closed years ago can sit in a directory indefinitely. This site reads the board file directly and publishes the status the board gives, which is why a school can appear here marked closed while another site still lists it as an option.
How do I check whether a school is licensed right now?
Check the board that licenses schools in that state, which is not always the board that licenses individuals. Illinois, for example, publishes a searchable license file with a status per record. Every state page on this site names its regulator and links its records, so you can confirm a school's license before you pay anything.

Sources

On this page
  1. Which states publish most
  2. States showing none
  3. States that cannot be checked
  4. Common questions
  5. Sources