Saving Indiana’s Certificate of Multilingual Literacy

When a 2025 Indiana bill threatened to eliminate the state’s Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency, education advocates acted fast. Led by national partners, a coalition mobilized within days, training supporters and sending 300+ emails to lawmakers. Their efforts preserved the state’s Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency and protected recognition for bilingual students. The same network also helped stop another bill targeting undocumented students. These victories highlight the power of grassroots advocacy in defending multilingual education and student rights. 

UnidosUS works to defend, protect and advance educational opportunities for the 5.3 million English learners throughout the United States and supports efforts to encourage multilingualism for all students, a particularly tough challenge today as multilingual learners face federal headwinds. Earlier this year, the quick mobilization of several education advocacy organizations in Indiana helped to hold the line on protecting a key state program that recognizes student achievement in biliteracy.  

The lesson is to always keep a watchful eye on legislation while maintaining continuous dialogue about the benefits and goals of multilingual and multicultural education, say members of the state’s English Language Learner Regional Collaborative, which includes educators, policymakers and other stakeholders nested within the Indiana Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (INTESOL), the Indiana state chapter of the international association. Learn how two of those members convinced Rep. Robert Behning, the Chairman of Indiana’s House Education Committee, to amend a bill to save such provisions.  

An accidental oversight in educational policymaking  

Ten years ago, then Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Senate Bill 267 which led to the creation of Indiana’s equivalent of the Seal of Biliteracy, a recognition stamped on the high school diplomas of students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia who reach high levels of proficiency in English and at least one other language. But this year, in an effort to clean up a variety of seemingly unrelated educational policies and place the remaining ones under one fluid bill, the Indiana State Legislature nearly wiped out that provision as well as a series of protections for English learners and immigrant students.  

“This happened very quickly,” said Trish Morita-Mullaney, a longtime multilingual education researcher and a member of INTESOL. “You have to be paying attention when the legislative session is in force or motion.”  

That’s especially important in a state where growth in the English learner student population, which represents well over 276 distinct languages, has exceeded 500% since the early 2000s, according to data collected from INTESOL. In fact, according to Fall 2021 school data published by the Migration Policy Institute, California, Texas and Florida still host the largest number of English learners in their schools, but Indiana has a rapidly growing English learner population, ranking 18th in the nation.  

The dilemma began in January 2025 during the incoming administration of Indiana’s new Governor Mike Braun. That month, Rep. Behning introduced Education Matters (House Bill 1002), which aimed to streamline dozens of educational regulations for optional educational programs, but the structure and wording of the bill would have wiped out Indiana’s Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency, and struck a pilot program for dual-language education.  

The crisis was averted because for the past 10 years, INTESOL and members of its English Language Learner Regional Collaborative have been meeting regularly to discuss and advocate for well-rounded, equitable English and bilingual educational programs and related policies. So as soon as HB 1002 was introduced, they were on it. They wondered, why would Rep. Behning, the very policymaker who first sponsored the Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency in 2015 suddenly propose to eliminate it?  

The only logical explanation was that there were so many educational provisions in the pipeline and legislators were working under pressure, without fully recognizing what they were putting on the chopping block. But at least that would make it easier to convince elected officials to pause and reconsider, but advocates would have to act fast.  

Taking grassroots action 

INTESOL’s English Language Learner Regional Collaborative, alongside the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (IFLTA) and the Joint National Committee for Languages/ National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS), contacted their constituents across their nine state regions, all represented by educational service centers for professional and technical development.  

INTESOL organized phone and Zoom meetings to alert educators, parents, students and other multilingual education advocates of the problem and train them on how to address it by contacting their elected officials. “We taught people how to advocate with their stakeholders and legislators — this is how you write a letter, here’s a template, this is how you make a phone call,” said Morita-Mullaney, explaining how they provided suggested language and other strategic tips.  

Meanwhile, IFLTA wrote a letter of support and reached out to the Joint National Committee for Foreign Languages-National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS) to amplify advocacy efforts since the latter group, which represents both INTESOL and IFLTA, would have a stronger communications and lobbying infrastructure as well as a national name to exert greater pressure.  

“Major strides have been made over the last few years to encourage teachers and districts to allow students to earn their Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency. This greater understanding of the legislation and process helped IFLTA and our advocates mobilize around this issue so quickly,” said IFLTA president Megan Worcester.  

Within about two days, all of these organizations were fully mobilized, but also attentive and strategic in their protocol. INTESOL and IFLTA are both registered as nonprofits, a status which allows them to advocate on state policies. However, their members are volunteers, so leaders of both organizations encouraged them to send the letters from personal emails, identifying themselves under broader terms such as citizens, taxpayers, educators and parents of students rather than identify themselves according to their places of employment. Within 10 days, over 300 emails were sent to Indiana legislators to ensure that the Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency was removed from HB 1002.  

One of the most important aspects of the campaign was to reinforce the urgency of the matter.  

“Don’t sit around and think ‘I need to do this on the weekend when I have time;’ you cannot wait,” Morita-Mullaney told the advocates and trainees in INTESOL meetings.  

“We did the teaching. We did the modeling. We did the mentoring. We’ve gotten really good at that over the years, and what’s so cool about Indiana TESOL is that we have four white papers that have made a huge imprint on the State of Indiana,” she explained. “Because of that history, right when this happened, bam we were on it.”  

The white papers cover areas such as ensuring that classes with 30 or more English learners have a certified English as a Second Language (ESL) or bilingual teacher; increased funding for English learner educational supports; and better English learner educational standards and over the years, they have all contributed to related legislation for ESL and multilingual education, as well as to greater dialogue and coalition building within the English Language Learner Regional Collaborative which began in 2015, the same year that the state’s Seal of Biliteracy was enacted. Through the coalition, Indiana TESOL has also pushed for greater representation of English learners by asking that each division bring representatives that work with English learner students to their annual conferences so that all attendants have a portrait of English learners in their community.  

“I was blown away by that first meeting in 2015. I thought this is what diversity looks like,” said Morita-Mullaney, noting that while some of Indiana’s rural communities are largely white, Christian and even Amish, two rural communities employ large numbers of Latinos in industries like meat packing and 30-40% of their families speak Spanish as their home language. Meanwhile, in urban settings like Indianapolis, there are significant numbers of Latinx and communities from Myanmar, who fled war-torn Burma.  

“It’s a proportional impact, which means everybody in that community is going to have an English learner in their classroom,” said Morita-Mullaney. Every English Language Learner Regional Collaborative conference or meeting includes follow-up communications in the form of listservs, website updates and check-ins regionally as needed, so that each regional area is ready to respond to educational concerns that might be coming through the state’s legislative pipeline.  

In this case, coalition building and advocacy activation made the difference in protecting Indiana’s Seal of Biliteracy for future students. According to the 2024 National Seal of Biliteracy Report, 866 Certificates of Multilingual Proficiency were awarded in Indiana in the 2022-23 school year , and according to the Indiana Department of Education, that number jumped to 1026 in 2023-2024, and covered 22 different languages. The certificates are noted on a student’s transcript so all colleges/universities will see it. In addition, students receive a physical certificate to share with potential employers and universities and any other entity that they feel should have access to it. 

And the coalition didn’t stop there — INTESOL advocates banded together to stop another bill, HB 1394, introduced by Indiana State Legislature Representatives Jim Lucas and J.D. Prescott, which would have allowed public schools to bar undocumented students from enrolling and forced school officials to report students’ status to authorities. This bill, if passed, would have put the state in direct violation of the 1982 Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe, which made it illegal for states to deny students a free K-12 public education based on their immigration status or that of their parents.  

INTESOL reminded its constituents that this bill would exacerbate the Trump administration’s decision to overturn prior directives which prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from entering sensitive areas such as schools. ILFTA backed INTESOL’s rejection of this bill, sent a letter to the legislature and the bill ultimately died in committee. 

“IFLTA strives to promote the value that languages have to not only the individual student, but to the communities they live in, the state economy and our national security. Our multilingual learners from all backgrounds are vital to this shared mission,” said Worcester.  

“We commend Indiana’s language advocates for their tenacity in advocating for multilingual learning, otherwise Indiana would have been the first state to roll back its Seal of Biliteracy,” said Amalia Chamorro, UnidosUS director of education policy. “We support the Seal as a recognition of students’ multilingual proficiency as an asset in education and the workforce.”