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Utah
Utah 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, 8.7% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.
Credentials
Dual Language Immersion Endorsement
- Standalone certification
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Required
- Coursework
- Required
- Practicum
- Required
- Subject test
- Not required
- Language proficiency
- Required
USBE Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Endorsement attaches to a Professional or Associate Educator License (Elementary or Secondary) and authorizes K-12 DLI and Bridge classroom assignment. Three named requirement areas: (1) Foundations of DLI — satisfied by a USBE-approved DLI prep program/minor at one of five Utah universities (BYU, Utah, USU, UVU, Weber State), a Foundations of DLI university course, or six competency-based microcredential modules; (2) DLI Clinical Experience — satisfied via the same approved program OR ≥1 year teaching in an approved DLI/Bridge program; (3) World Language Oral Proficiency — ACTFL OPI Advanced-Mid, ACTFL OPIc Advanced-Low, or a bachelor's degree from a foreign university taught in the target language. No Praxis content exam is required.
ESL Endorsement
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Required
- Coursework
- Required
- Practicum
- Unknown
- Subject test
- Required
USBE English as a Second Language Endorsement (ADA-Compliant application 7/10/2023) is an add-on to a current Educator License, anchored to TESOL Pre-K-12 Teacher Preparation Standards. Five requirement areas — Language, Culture, Assessment, Instruction, and Family & Community Engagement (Professionalism) — each satisfied by ONE of four interchangeable demonstrations of competency: (a) university course, (b) competency-based USBE-approved LEA program, (c) Master's degree with ESL major or minor (or out-of-state ESL license), or (d) Praxis II 5362 (English to Speakers of Other Languages, passing score 149). The application does not list a practicum requirement; the underlying R277 administrative rule was not retrieved in this verification pass, so practicum is logged as unknown rather than false.
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 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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SB 41 establishes Dual Language Immersion pilot
Utah's Dual Language Immersion program was authorized by SB 41 of the 2008 General Session, codified under Utah Code 53G-10-302. The program has since grown into one of the country's largest state-supported DLI networks, paired with a USBE-administered Dual Language Immersion endorsement.
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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 Utah's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.
Sources
- [1] Utah State Board 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] USBE — English as a Second Language Endorsement application (ADA-Compliant 7/10/2023) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [4] USBE — Dual Language Immersion Endorsement application (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [5] USBE — World Languages Endorsement specifications (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [6] USBE — Utah Effective Teaching Standards (UETS), August 2023 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [7] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English learners enrolled in public schools by state, fall 2021 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [8] Utah State Board of Education, Fall Enrollment Count 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
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projectcert. (2026, May 10). Utah EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ut/
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_ut_2026, author = {{projectcert}}, title = {{Utah EL teacher certification}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://projectcert.org/states/ut/}, 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.