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Connecticut

Verified against current sources (2026-05-10) Cite this page ↓

Connecticut offers Bilingual Education as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is available both as a standalone license and as an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2024, 11.3% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

11.3%
classified ELs (2024-10-01)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Not required
Subject test
Not required
Language proficiency
Required

CT issues bilingual qualifications as cross-endorsements (no standalone bilingual license). Requires 18 semester hours across six areas at one regionally accredited college, plus ACTFL OPI + WPT in the target language and Praxis Core writing in English. Most bilingual endorsements layer on top of an existing primary endorsement; secondary bilingual humanities (#991) and STEM (#992) are exceptions requiring 15 content-area hours instead. ARCTEL exists as an alternate program-based pathway, hence program=null rather than false. Baseline-2019 coded offered=false; this refresh corrects to offered=true,addOn=true.

TESOL Cross Endorsement

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Required

CT offers BOTH the Initial TESOL Teaching Certificate (PK-12, standalone) and a TESOL cross-endorsement. Standalone pathway requires an approved preparation program with TESOL student teaching and Praxis II ESOL. Cross-endorsement requires 30 semester hours of TESOL coursework across five categories (English Syntax/Composition; Language Theory; Linguistic and Academic Assessment of ELLs; Curriculum and Methods of Teaching ESL; Culture and Intergroup Relations). Schema fields are coded on the strength of the standalone pathway.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

No statewide SEI mandate. Connecticut General Statutes §10-17f triggers bilingual programs when a school enrolls 20+ ELs of the same language background; ESL/sheltered instruction elsewhere is delivered by TESOL-credentialed teachers. Statewide SEI mandates exist in MA/AZ/CA (and phasing in NV) but not CT.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2017.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

LAS Links Online · State-specific assessment.

Source: portal.ct.gov (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. Connecticut Bilingual Education Act enacted (Public Act 77-588)

    Public Act 77-588 (codified at C.G.S. § 10-17f et seq.) required Connecticut school districts with 20 or more EL students of the same dominant language at any one school to provide a bilingual education program. The 1977 act was substantially amended in 1999 (Public Act 99-211) to cap bilingual program participation at 30 months per student, and again in 2017 (Public Act 17-173) to extend the cap by an additional 30 months under specified conditions. The §10-17f trigger threshold is the current statutory backbone for CT's bilingual cross-endorsement framework.

    cga.ct.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. Connecticut State Seal of Biliteracy enacted (Public Act 17-29)

    Governor signed Public Act 17-29 establishing the Connecticut State Seal of Biliteracy, recognizing high school graduates who attain proficiency in English plus one or more world languages. SDE administers the Seal in partnership with districts.

    portal.ct.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. CSDE adopts CCT Rubric for Effective Teaching (2017 edition)

    CSDE released the 2017 edition of the Common Core of Teaching (CCT) Rubric for Effective Teaching, the foundational professional-standards document binding all CT teachers. Keyword scan: 'diverse', 'cultural', and 'English learner' present; 'linguistic' absent — driving professionalStandardsMentions.linguistic = false.

    portal.ct.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)

    Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of Connecticut's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Connecticut State Dept. of Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  3. [3] CSDE Certification — Bilingual Cross-Endorsement Requirements (18 semester hours; six coursework areas; ACTFL OPI/WPT; Praxis Core writing) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] CSDE Certification — Approved Courses for TESOL Cross-Endorsement (30 semester hours; five course categories) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] CSDE — English Language Proficiency Assessment (LAS Links, K-12, 2025-26 administration) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] CSDE — Connecticut State Seal of Biliteracy (Public Act 17-29, signed June 6, 2017) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] CSDE — CCT Rubric for Effective Teaching 2017 (foundational professional standards; keyword scan: diverse/cultural/EL present; linguistic absent) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — Connecticut Fall 2021: 47,740 ELs (9.4%) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] CSDE — English Learners / Bilingual Education (CGS §10-17f program triggers; no statewide SEI mandate) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] Connecticut State Department of Education, The Condition of Education in Connecticut 2024-25 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-10

Cite this page

Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.

APA
projectcert. (2026, May 10). Connecticut EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ct/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
BibTeX
@misc{projectcert_ct_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Connecticut EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/ct/},
  urldate = {2026-05-10},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-10}
}
@article{leider2021decentralization,
  author  = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika},
  title   = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}},
  journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives},
  volume  = {29},
  number  = {100},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279}
}

See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.