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Indiana
Indiana 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, 7.0% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.
Credentials
Bilingual education
Not offered.
IDOE does not issue a bilingual / dual language teaching credential. World-language licenses (Spanish, French, German, Chinese, etc.) authorize the language as a content area but do not authorize content-area instruction in that language.
English as a New Language
- Standalone certification
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Required
- Coursework
- Required
- Practicum
- Unknown
- Subject test
- Required
The English as a New Language (ENL) Professional Educator License is the EL credential. It is issued via (a) completion of an IDOE-approved educator preparation program at a regionally-accredited university, plus (b) passage of a state-approved content exam — Indiana CORE 019 'English Learners' or Praxis 5362 'English to Speakers of Other Languages' (cut score 155). Both Indiana CORE and Praxis tables flag ENL as 'No — must complete approved educator preparation program', so test alone is not sufficient. Coursework is part of the approved program (varies by university; IDOE does not enumerate uniform credit hours). The temporary EL Teacher of Record (ToR) Rubric — an alternate path for already-licensed teachers based on SLA coursework, EL teaching years, and PD points — closed to new candidates on September 1, 2022. After that date, the only options to serve as an EL ToR are full ENL licensure or an ENL Emergency Permit (one-year, LEA-issued, requires demonstrated progress toward full licensure to renew). Practicum is set at the program/institution level rather than by a uniform IDOE rule, so the field is null. No partner-language proficiency exam is required (ENL is not a bilingual credential).
Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)
Not mandated for all teachers.
There is no universal SEI / EL coursework mandate on all Indiana teachers. The federal-compliance structure IDOE imposes is per-LEA: every LEA must designate at least one qualified 'EL Teacher of Record' (ENL-licensed or ENL Emergency Permit holder) for its EL students. Non-ENL-licensed classroom teachers may serve ELs as a 'Teacher of Service' (ToS) under ToR oversight, with ongoing job-embedded EL training, but this does not require all teachers to obtain ENL coursework.
State policy signals
Seal of Biliteracy
Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.
Adopted in 2015.
ELP assessment
Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.
ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.
History of licensure
Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.
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Indiana adopts Indiana Seal of Biliteracy
Indiana enacted its Seal of Biliteracy program (HEA 1638), recognizing graduates proficient in English plus one or more additional languages. IDOE administers the credential at the district level; participation has expanded steadily since adoption.
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IDOE issues EL Program Staffing memo defining 'EL Teacher of Record'
IDOE clarified that every LEA serving ELs must designate at least one ENL-licensed (or ENL Emergency Permit) EL Teacher of Record. Non-ENL classroom teachers may serve ELs as Teachers of Service under ToR oversight. This memo is the operative staffing rule that replaces a generic SEI mandate in Indiana.
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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 Indiana's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.
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EL ToR alternate qualification path closes
The alternate-qualification rubric path that allowed non-ENL-licensed teachers to be qualified as EL Teacher of Record sunset on 2022-09-01. ENL licensure (or an ENL Emergency Permit) is now the sole pathway to ToR status, tightening the credential market for EL services.
Sources
- [1] Indiana Department of Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
- [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] IDOE — Meeting English Learner Teacher of Record Requirements (EL ToR Rubric, alternate qualification path that closed 2022-09-01) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [4] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English learners enrolled in public schools by state, fall 2021 (Indiana: 7.0%) (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
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projectcert. (2026, May 8). Indiana EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/in/
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
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@misc{projectcert_in_2026, author = {{projectcert}}, title = {{Indiana EL teacher certification}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://projectcert.org/states/in/}, 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.