Dental Assisting Programs in California
California has 18 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, spread across 18 cities from Eureka to San Diego.
Each is listed below with its city, address, website, and current accreditation status, pulled directly from the Commission on Dental Accreditation's own program directory.
This list covers only CODA-accredited programs — what California itself requires before you can work chairside is a separate question from accreditation, covered on our California requirements page.
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At a glance
In California
Programs
18
With a program
Cities
18
Approval without Reporting Requirements
Fully approved
17 of 18
Every CODA-Accredited Program in California
Source: CODA program directory, index dated 2026-09-09. Status terms (“Approval without Reporting Requirements,” “Approval with Reporting Requirements,” “Initial Accreditation,” “Discontinued,” etc.) are CODA’s own.
Reading the List
CODA uses a few specific status terms. "Approval (without reporting requirements)" means the program meets or exceeds CODA's basic accreditation standards. "Approval (with reporting requirements)" means CODA found specific deficiencies the program must correct within a set timeframe — it is not a warning to avoid the program, just a compliance step in progress. "Initial Accreditation" applies to a program that hasn't yet graduated its first class.
The last- and next-visit years shown are CODA's own accreditation-visit schedule, not the program's academic calendar.
For admissions, cost, and current status, contact the program directly and check CODA's own directory, which is the definitive, up-to-date source.
Why Accreditation Matters for Your Credential
Whether California requires formal dental assistant training at all — and for which duties — is a matter of state law, covered on our California dental assistant requirements page rather than anything here.
What CODA accreditation does affect is your national certification path: the DANB Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) credential's General Chairside component requires either graduating a CODA-accredited program or documenting roughly 3,500 hours of on-the-job experience.
If you're still weighing which route to take, see our school vs. on-the-job training comparison, our step-by-step guide to becoming a dental assistant, and our breakdown of what's tested on the DANB CDA exam.
After Graduation in California
Once you've completed a program — or an on-the-job path, where the state allows it — the next questions are what the job pays and where the openings are.
Our California dental assistant salary guide covers current pay data for the state, broken out against the national figures, so you can see how California compares before you negotiate an offer.
From there, our California dental assistant job listings show open positions you can apply to directly, wherever in the state you trained.
Where California's Programs Are
California's 18 programs are spread across the state rather than clustered in one region — the Bay Area (Alameda, Novato, Pleasant Hill, San Francisco, San Jose, San Mateo, Los Altos Hills), Southern California (Cypress, Glendora, La Puente, Moreno Valley, Norwalk, Pasadena, Rancho Cucamonga, San Diego, San Marcos), and Northern California (Eureka, Sacramento).
Most sit at community colleges, with one adult-education program in La Puente.
Check the table above for the specific address and website nearest you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CODA-accredited dental assisting programs are in California?
California has 18 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, in 18 cities across the state — from Eureka in the north to San Diego in the south.
Each is listed above with its current CODA accreditation status, address and website.
CODA's own directory is the definitive, up-to-date list — confirm a program's status directly with CODA before applying.
Does an out-of-state CODA-accredited program count in California?
Yes.
CODA accreditation is a national standard, not a state one, so a program accredited by CODA counts regardless of which state it's located in.
What varies by state is licensure and any credentialing rules the state itself sets — see our California requirements page for that side of the picture.
What does "Approval without Reporting Requirements" mean?
It's CODA's classification for a program that meets or exceeds its basic accreditation standards at the time of its last review, with no outstanding deficiencies to report.
It is CODA's most straightforward status, distinct from "Approval (with reporting requirements)," which flags specific items a program must still address within a set timeframe.
Do I have to attend a CODA-accredited program to work as a dental assistant in California?
That depends on California's own rules for the role, which this page doesn't cover — see our California dental assistant requirements page and our school vs. on-the-job training guide for how the state's options compare.
CODA accreditation is most relevant to the DANB CDA certification's eligibility requirements, not to state law generally.
Is every program on this list accredited?
Every program above is shown with the CODA accreditation status CODA had published for it as of 2026-09-09, the date this directory was last pulled from CODA's own program search. "Approval without Reporting Requirements" is CODA's standard fully-accredited standing; other status terms on this page — such as "Approval with Reporting Requirements," "Initial Accreditation," or "Discontinued" — mean something different, and a status can change after that date.
Confirm a program's current status directly with CODA before applying.
More California & Dental Assistant Resources
Sourced from the CODA program directory (index dated 2026-09-09). Verified September 2026. Program details change. Confirm accreditation status, admission requirements and costs with the program and with CODA before applying.