2022 Teacher Credentialing Outside of the U.S. - Legislative Report

California Department of Education
Report to the Legislature: Teacher Credentialing: Teacher Preparation Outside of the United States and H-1B Work Visas

Executive Summary

This report is required by California Education Code Section 44275.6 . This statute was added by Assembly Bill 681 (Ch. 199, Stats. 2017), which created a pathway for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to determine whether the national teaching credential standards of another country are equivalent to the United States/California standards in order to expedite the credentialing process for out-of-country prepared teacher candidates. This report summarizes the H-1B work visa data collected annually from school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. These data include the number of teacher visa applications for persons excluded from the term “immigrant,” for purposes of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (Section 1101 of Title 8 of the United States Code), pursuant to Section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of Title 8 of the United States Code.

This report contains the last year (2021–22) of H-1B work visa data from California local educational agencies (LEAs). The H-1B Federal Program was created to assist employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed skills and aptitudes from the United States workforce by sanctioning the temporary employment of experienced individuals who are not otherwise permitted to work in the United States California LEAs epitomize the type of employer that may benefit from this federal program. This report includes the number of California work visa applications for persons excluded from the term “immigrant,” for purposes of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (Section 1101 of Title 8 of the United States Code), pursuant to Section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of Title 8 of the United States Code from 2021–22.

In 2021−22, 65 LEAs submitted a request for teacher work visas throughout California. A total of 179 work visas were requested by LEAs, and 154 work visas were granted. Only 25 requests for H-1B teacher work visas were denied in 2021−22. Similar to the data from the prior three years (2018−21), in 2021−22, the majority of submissions were generated by school districts. Specifically, school districts accounted for 42 out of the 65 LEAs that requested teacher work visas.

You will find this report on the California Department of Education Recruiting Teachers of Color web page at California Department of Education Recruiting Teachers of Color web page. If you have questions or need a copy of this report, please contact Alexis Clift, Education Programs Consultant, Teacher and Leader Policy Office, Educator Excellence and Equity Division, at 916-319-0452 or aclift@cde.ca.gov.

Report to the Governor and Legislature (DOCX)