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Texas

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

Texas offers Bilingual Education both as a standalone certification and as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2024, 24.3% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

24.3%
classified ELs (2024-10-25)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Education Supplemental

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

SBEC issues a Bilingual Education Supplemental certificate (19 TAC §233.6); a new Core/Bilingual Education Spanish with the Science of Teaching Reading: EC-Grade 6 base certificate becomes issuable Sept 1, 2028 (§233.2(f)). Required exams include the Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT, #190), the Bilingual Supplemental (#164), Core Subjects EC-6 (or grade-band equivalent), and PPR or edTPA. Texas also recognizes a Bilingual Special Education Supplemental EC-12 effective Sept 1, 2027 (§233.8(a)). Practicum (clinical) experience left null as a separate flag because the EPP route bundles it; will revisit when the schema separates EPP-embedded vs. standalone practicum.

ESL Supplemental

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

SBEC issues an English as a Second Language Supplemental certificate (19 TAC §233.7), required for any teacher serving emergent bilingual students in an ESL program (TEC §29.061). A Core/ESL Supplemental with the Science of Teaching Reading: EC-Grade 6 base certificate becomes issuable Sept 1, 2028 (§233.2(g)). Required exam: ESL Supplemental (#154) plus PPR or edTPA. No target-language proficiency exam is required for ESL.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

Texas mandates bilingual or ESL services for emergent bilingual students (TEC Chapter 29 Subchapter B; 19 TAC §§89.1201, 89.1205, 89.1210), but those services are delivered by appropriately certified bilingual or ESL teachers — Texas does not impose an SEI training requirement on all classroom teachers.

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.

TELPAS · State-specific assessment.

Source: tea.texas.gov (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

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

  1. Texas Bilingual Education and Training Act enacted (SB 121, 63rd Legislature)

    Texas became the third state (after Massachusetts 1971 and New Mexico 1973) to mandate bilingual education by statute. SB 121 required school districts with 20 or more EL students of the same language background in the same grade level (K-3) to provide bilingual instruction, and authorized the Texas Education Agency to certify bilingual teachers. The law was substantially expanded by SB 477 (1981) — passed in the wake of the U.S. v. Texas (Civ. Action 5281) federal-court order — to cover K-elementary and to require both bilingual and ESL programs depending on enrollment thresholds. The current 19 TAC Chapter 89 framework descends from this statutory backbone.

    statutes.capitol.texas.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. Castañeda v. Pickard decided by the Fifth Circuit (648 F.2d 989)

    Arising out of the Raymondville, Texas ISD, the Fifth Circuit established the three-prong test that federal courts use to evaluate state and district compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974: (1) the program must be based on sound educational theory; (2) it must be implemented effectively with adequate resources and personnel; and (3) the district must evaluate the program and modify it if it is not producing results. The Castañeda standard remains the controlling EEOA test for EL programs nationwide and is the doctrinal anchor cited in the 2011 DOJ settlement with Massachusetts and the Flores v. Arizona litigation.

    law.justia.com (opens in a new tab)

  3. 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 Texas'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)

  4. TAC Ch. 89 Subch. BB amended (HB 3 implementation, 86th Leg.)

    The Texas Education Agency amended 19 TAC Chapter 89 Subchapter BB (45 TexReg 2415) to implement HB 3 (86th Legislature, 2019), restructuring program-model definitions and emergent-bilingual accountability — the largest structural update to the bilingual/ESL program rules since the 1996 TAC recodification.

    tea.texas.gov (opens in a new tab)

  5. HB 1414 replaces "English learner" with "emergent bilingual"

    Texas enacted HB 1414 (88th Legislature, 2023), replacing "English learner" with "emergent bilingual" throughout Texas Education Code Chapter 29. Subsequent TAC amendments (48 TexReg 4247) propagated the terminology change across the bilingual/ESL program rules.

    capitol.texas.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Texas Education Agency (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] 19 TAC §89.1201 — Policy (State Plan for Educating Emergent Bilingual Students) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] 19 TAC §89.1205 — Required Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Programs (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] 19 TAC §89.1210 — Program Content and Design (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] 19 TAC Chapter 233 — Categories of Classroom Teaching Certificates (May 2024 update); §§233.6 Bilingual Education Supplemental, 233.7 ESL Supplemental, 233.2(f)-(g), 233.8(a) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] TEA — Bilingual/ESL Certification Pathways (Emergency Permits, Intern, Probationary/Standard) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] TEA — Texas Examinations of Educator Standards (TExES) Required Tests Chart (BTLPT #190, Bilingual Supplemental #164, ESL Supplemental #154) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English Learners in Public Schools, fall 2021 (TX = 20.2%) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] Texas Education Agency, Enrollment in Texas Public Schools 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). Texas EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/tx/
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_tx_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Texas EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/tx/},
  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.