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New Hampshire
New Hampshire 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, 2.8% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.
Credentials
Bilingual education
Not offered.
NH has no bilingual / dual-language educator endorsement in Ed 506 or Ed 507. Bilingual and dual-language are referenced in Ed 507.17 only as Language Instruction Educational Program (LIEP) types an ESOL teacher must understand, not as separate NH credentials.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) (Ed. 612.06)
- Standalone certification
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Required
- Coursework
- Required
- Practicum
- Required
- Subject test
- Unknown
Ed 507.17 (eff. 8-11-23) governs ESOL teacher licensure K-12. Candidates must hold a bachelor's degree, qualify through an approved program or an Ed 505.01–505.06 alternative, demonstrate oral and written English language proficiency for ELs, and provide evidence of second-language study (≥2 college semesters, ≥6 months residency abroad, or native/heritage speaker). Six competency domains (language as a system, language development, culture in student learning, methods, assessment, professionalism) are required via combined academic and supervised practical experiences. NH's competency-based system does not require a specific content-area test in rule; `test` left null.
Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)
Not mandated for all teachers.
No statewide SEI training mandate for all teachers. NH places EL responsibility on ESOL-endorsed teachers per Ed 507.17 and on collaborative classroom practice.
State policy signals
Seal of Biliteracy
Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.
Adopted in 2020.
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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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 New Hampshire'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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NH Seal of Biliteracy adopted
Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut approved adoption of the Seal of Biliteracy in New Hampshire in September 2020, with State Board of Education support. Students became eligible to earn the seal beginning spring 2021; the award appears on the high school diploma along with a state-issued certificate.
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Ed 507.17 ESOL Teacher rule readopted
NH State Board readopted Ed 507.17 effective 8-11-23, restructuring the ESOL teacher competencies into six domains (language as a system; language development; culture; methods; assessment; professionalism) and codifying explicit requirements for English language proficiency in oral/written domains plus second-language study experience. Approved-program or Ed 505.01–505.06 alternative pathway is required.
Sources
- [1] New Hampshire 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] NH Code of Administrative Rules, Ed 507.17 ESOL Teacher (eff. 8-11-23) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [4] NH Code of Administrative Rules, Ed 500 series (educator licensure, incl. Ed 505.03 professional education standards) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [5] NH Department of Education — New Hampshire Seal of Biliteracy (program page) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [6] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20 — English learners by state, fall 2021 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [7] NH/WIDA EL Identification & Placement guidance (NH is a WIDA member; ACCESS for ELLs) (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). New Hampshire EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/nh/
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_nh_2026, author = {{projectcert}}, title = {{New Hampshire EL teacher certification}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://projectcert.org/states/nh/}, 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.