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All states / New York

New York

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

New York 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 2023, 10.7% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

10.7%
classified ELs (2023-10-04)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Extension

  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Required
Language proficiency
Required

Bilingual Education Extension: add-on only, attached to a valid base certificate. Approved program requires coursework in six content areas, ≥50 clock hours of college-supervised field experience, and the Bilingual Education Assessment (BEA), which doubles as the language-proficiency instrument for the language other than English.

ESOL Certification

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

Branded ESOL in OTI certification listings and TESOL in higher-ed program names. Standalone classroom-teacher certificate (CST 116 ESOL) plus supplementary pathway for already-certified teachers. Programs (Fall 2024+) require ≥100 clock hours of field experience and ≥70 school days of student teaching with ELL students. 12 LOTE semester hours required as coursework precondition but not as a target-language proficiency demonstration.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

No universal SEI/EL credential mandate. CR Part 154 requires general classroom teachers of ELLs to dedicate 15% of CTLE clock hours to language acquisition addressing the needs of ELLs — a continuing-education obligation, not a credential mandate.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2013.

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

ELP assessment

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

NYSESLAT · State-specific assessment.

Source: www.nysed.gov (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

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

  1. Aspira v. Board of Education of the City of New York consent decree (S.D.N.Y.)

    ASPIRA of New York and Puerto Rican parents settled their 1972 class action against the New York City Board of Education with a consent decree that became the country's first court-ordered bilingual-education program of any scale. The decree required NYC to identify Spanish-speaking ELs and provide a Transitional Bilingual Education program (Spanish-language content instruction plus intensive ESL) for any student whose ability to participate effectively in English was below grade level. Aspira's compliance regime was the operational model that NYSED later codified for the state in CR Part 154 and remains the doctrinal touchstone for NYC's bilingual-extension teacher demand.

    nysed.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. NYSESLAT introduced as the state ELP assessment

    New York adopted the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) as its annual ELP assessment in 2003. NY has never been a WIDA Consortium member; the companion identification screener is NYSITELL. Coded as elpAssessment.consortium=null because NYSESLAT is state-specific.

    nysed.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. New York State Seal of Biliteracy enacted

    Chapter 416 of the Laws of 2012 (signed 2012-12-17) authorized the New York State Seal of Biliteracy (NYSSB) administered by NYSED's Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages. First seals issued 2013-14. Coded as sealOfBiliteracy.year=2013 to reflect the first-award year.

    nysed.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. CR Part 154 Multilingual Learner / ELL regulations adopted

    Board of Regents adopted revised Commissioner's Regulations Part 154 (Sept. 2014, effective school year 2015-16) governing services for ELLs/MLs, including the requirement that general classroom teachers of ELLs dedicate 15% of CTLE clock hours to language acquisition. CR Part 154 (not a new credential) is the operative ELL service mandate; underpins the sei notes.

    nysed.gov (opens in a new tab)

  5. 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 York'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] New York State Education Department (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] NYSED — New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) program page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] NYSED — CR Part 154 ELL/Multilingual Learner Regulations and Compliance (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] NYSED Office of Teaching Initiatives — Extension (Bilingual) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] NYSED — General and Program-Specific Requirements: Bilingual Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] NYSED — General and Program-Specific Requirements: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL/TESOL) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] NYSED Office of Bilingual Education — ELL and ML Educator Certification (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] NYSED — New York State Seal of Biliteracy (NYSSB) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] NY Board of Regents — New York State Teaching Standards (2011) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 (English learners in public schools, by state) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  12. [12] New York State Education Department Data Site, English Language Learners (2023-24) (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). New York EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ny/
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_ny_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{New York EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/ny/},
  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.