Credit for State Seal of Biliteracy

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, the State Seal of Biliteracy “recognizes public high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in one or more languages in addition to English.” Through HB 4330, the Illinois School Code was amended to include the Seal of Biliteracy. Illinois Student Code requires that public universities in the State of Illinois (1) for admissions purposes, accept the State Seal of Biliteracy as equivalent to two years of foreign language coursework taken in high school and (2) establish criteria for awarding equivalent course credit. These requirements went into effect January 1, 2017. As of March 2019, 36 states plus the District of Columbia have a State Seal of Biliteracy. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will recognize the State Seal of Biliteracy regardless of the state in which it was earned. No credit will be awarded for the State Commendation toward Biliteracy.

Credit is not processed automatically upon receipt of a high school transcript. In accordance with Illinois School Code, students enrolled in a public community college or public university who have received a State Seal of Biliteracy must request credit for their seal within 3 academic years after graduating from high school. Students enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign may submit the request to the Office of the Registrar via the online request form after the beginning of the first term of enrollment.

Upon receipt of the request from the student, the Office of the Registrar will verify the Seal of Biliteracy on the official final high school transcript received by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Students with a verified Seal of Biliteracy will earn 8 hours of credit equivalent to the first two levels of foreign language regardless of the language other than English. The credit will appear as 8.00 Earned hours from Seal of Biliteracy on the official University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign transcript in the Transfer Credit Accepted by the Institution section. Similar to credit earned from Advanced Placement exams, the credit will not be included in the calculation of the student’s Grade Point Average (GPA) given there is no grade (e.g. A, B+, C-) associated with the seal.

Please contact the Academic Records Unit within the Office of the Registrar at record-info@illinois.edu or 217-333-9774, if you have any questions or require assistance.