Dental Assisting Programs in Illinois
Illinois has 4 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, in 4 cities: Centralia, Elgin, Godfrey and Oglesby.
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 Illinois itself requires before you can work chairside is a separate question from accreditation, covered on our Illinois requirements page.
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At a glance
In Illinois
Programs
4
With a program
Cities
4
Approval without Reporting Requirements
Fully approved
4 of 4
Every CODA-Accredited Program in Illinois
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 Illinois requires formal dental assistant training at all — and for which duties — is a matter of state law, covered on our Illinois 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 Illinois
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 Illinois dental assistant salary guide covers current pay data for the state, broken out against the national figures, so you can see how Illinois compares before you negotiate an offer.
From there, our dental assistant job listings show open positions you can apply to directly, wherever in the state you trained.
Where Illinois's Programs Are
Illinois's 4 programs are spread across the state rather than clustered in one metro area.
Elgin Community College sits in Elgin, a Chicago-area suburb in the northeast.
Kaskaskia College in Centralia serves south-central Illinois, while Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey is in the southwestern part of the state, near the Metro East St. Louis area.
Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby covers north-central Illinois.
If you're weighing a commute or a move, the table above has each program's full address so you can gauge the distance before you apply — and its website, so you can confirm what it currently offers directly with the program.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CODA-accredited dental assisting programs are in Illinois?
Illinois has 4 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, in 4 cities: Centralia, Elgin, Godfrey and Oglesby.
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 Illinois?
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 Illinois 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 the Commission's basic accreditation standards, with no outstanding deficiencies it needs to report back on.
All 4 Illinois dental assisting programs listed above currently carry this status.
Confirm a program's current status directly with CODA before applying, since status can change between accreditation visits.
Do I have to attend a CODA-accredited program to work as a dental assistant in Illinois?
That depends on Illinois's own rules for the role, which this page doesn't cover — see our Illinois 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 Illinois & 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.