Maine Seal of Biliteracy

Awarding Process

Starting this school year, schools will be able to award the Seal of Biliteracy to students directly without submitting an application to the Maine Department of Education. Each participating school will designate a local Seal of Biliteracy Coordinator, who will have several key responsibilities. The Department encourages teams of educators and other staff to collaborate on Seal implementation. Full details about the process and requirements are included in the new Maine Seal of Biliteracy Coordinator Guide.

We are hopeful that these changes will increase accessibility to the Seal of Biliteracy and make the process easier and more streamlined for students and their teachers.

Eligibility Criteria

For languages other than English, individual language domain (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) scores must be at intermediate mid proficiency or above. If a given test does not provide individual domain scores, the overall score must be at intermediate mid proficiency or above.

Students whose primary/home language is other than English may be eligible for an exemption from the reading and writing domains if they have not had sufficient educational opportunity to become literate in their language. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing may be eligible for an exemption from the listening domain. 

**Students seeking the Seal of Biliteracy through the ACTFL OPI may be required to show proficiency in other available language modalities using the ACTFL Listening (LPT), Reading (RPT), and/or Writing (WPT) tests.