The Santa Clara County Office of Education has launched the Seal of Biliteracy initiative. It is an effort to award high school seniors certification noting mastery attainment of two or more languages upon their graduation. A system of "pathway" awards recognizing benchmarks towards biliteracy is expected for students in preschool through high school. A countywide Seal of Biliteracy advisory group was formed in January 2010 with six districts represented, and ideas developed by this advisory group were shared at the countywide English Language Acquisition Consortium (ELAC) meetings. This webpage is dedicated to sharing resources with districts to support their endeavor in establishing the Seal of Biliteracy.
California State Seal of Biliteracy
COVID-19 State Seal of Biliteracy Guidelines for 2019-20 and 2020-21 School Years
The following is a list of the highlights from the CDE’s State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB) FAQs update for 2020 or 2021. All information applies to graduates who were unable to take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) or English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) or who did not receive a letter grade due to COVID-19 related school closures.
“The requirement to demonstrate English proficiency by passing the CAASPP ELA at the “standard met” level or above has been waived per EC Section 51461(d) for 2021 graduates who were not administered the CAASPP ELA during the 2019–20 school year due to COVID-19 related school closures. Therefore, 2021 graduates must demonstrate English proficiency for the SSB by completing all ELA requirements for graduation with an overall GPA of 2.0 or above in those classes (EC Section 51461[a][1]).”
There is no deadline to order insignias and insignias may be awarded to students after graduation.
Students who completed the required English language arts coursework through distance learning are still eligible for the SSB, as long as the students met all other requirements even if they were not awarded a letter grade.
Students who completed the required world language coursework through distance learning are eligible for the SSB as long as they met all other requirements, even if they were not awarded a letter grade for coursework completed through distance learning.
LEAs decide locally whether to require graded work from students during distance learning. LEAs should refer to their local distance learning grading and GPA calculation policies when awarding the SSB during the 2019-20 school year.
It is a local decision how to assess oral proficiency, but in order to earn the SSB, students must meet this requirement.
2020 graduating seniors are not exempt from the CAASPP requirement for the SSB.
A World Language Advanced Placement (AP) score of 3 or higher can be used to demonstrate proficiency for the SSB.
For graduates who are English Learners and who were not administered the ELPAC due to school closures, an LEA may decide to award the SSB based on the student’s prior ELPAC score of 4 or higher.
The CDE has posted a full copy of the State Seal of Biliteracy Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs for the 2019-2020 and 2020-21 School Years.
