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All states / Georgia

Georgia

Verified against current sources (2026-05-08) Cite this page ↓

Georgia does not offer a bilingual education credential; 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 2021, 7.7% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.

7.7%
classified ELs (2021-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

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

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2016.

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

ELP assessment

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

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

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

  1. Georgia adopts the State Seal of Biliteracy

    Senate Bill 48 (2016) added O.C.G.A. § 20-2-159.5 directing GADOE to administer a Seal of Biliteracy on the high-school diploma for graduates demonstrating proficiency in English plus one or more additional languages. GADOE administers the program through districts.

    gadoe.org (opens in a new tab)

  2. 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 Georgia'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)

  3. GaPSC Rule 505-3-.89 (ESOL EPP standards) effective

    Revised ESOL Educator Preparation Program standards take effect August 15, 2023. Combined with Rule 505-2-.14 (endorsements) and the 2026-effective Rule 505-2-.166 (ESOL endorsement certification), this is Georgia's current rule architecture for the ESOL credential.

    gapsc.com (opens in a new tab)

  4. GaPSC Rule 505-2-.166 (ESOL Endorsement) effective

    Revised ESOL Endorsement Certification rule takes effect, restating the approved-program-plus-test pathway to the ESOL endorsement (field code 825) on a primary teaching certificate. The standalone ESOL field (885) remains in the P-12 Fields list per GaPSC's January 2026 Certificate Field Codes sheet.

    gapsc.com (opens in a new tab) · gapsc.com (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Georgia Department 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] GaPSC Rule 505-2-.166 — ESOL Endorsement Certification (eff. 2026-01-01) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] GaPSC Rule 505-2-.14 — Endorsements (general) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] GaPSC Rule 505-3-.89 — ESOL Educator Preparation Program Standards (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] GaPSC Rule 505-3-.03 — Elementary Education Program Standards (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] GaPSC Certificate Field Codes (revised January 2026) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20 (English Learners in Public Schools, fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] GADOE Seal of Biliteracy program page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] WIDA Consortium membership page (Georgia is a member) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08

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 8). Georgia EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ga/
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_ga_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Georgia EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/ga/},
  urldate = {2026-05-08},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-08}
}
@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.