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To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide additional amounts of loan forgiveness to teachers of English learners and teachers of bilingual and dual language immersion students, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill expands federal teacher loan forgiveness and loan cancellation programs to include teachers of English learners, bilingual students, and dual language immersion programs. Currently, these federal programs cover teachers of mathematics, science, and special education; this bill adds teachers who work with English learners as their primary responsibility or teach bilingual and dual language immersion classes. Teachers must be certified by their school's chief administrative officer as having appropriate training and teaching skills in their subject area. The changes apply to teachers eligible for loan forgiveness or cancellation after the bill's enactment date.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Actions (2)
- Dec 15, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. · house
- Dec 15, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 15, 2025
Mr. Espaillat introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide additional amounts of loan forgiveness to teachers of English learners and teachers of bilingual and dual language immersion students, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Supporting Providers of English Language Learning Act” or the “SPELL Act”.
SEC. 2. TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS, BILINGUAL, AND DUAL LANGUAGE STUDENTS.
(a) Loan Forgiveness for Teachers.—Section 428J(c)(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078-10(c)(3)) is amended—
(1) in the paragraph heading by striking “Mathematics, science, or special education” and inserting “Mathematics, science, special education, or english language education”;
(2) in subparagraph (A)(ii) by striking “and” at the end;
(3) in subparagraph (B)(iii) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
“(C) an elementary school or secondary school teacher—
“(i) who meets the requirements of subsection (b);
“(ii) whose qualifying employment for purposes of such subsection is—
“(I) as a teacher of English learners (as that term is defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)) whose primary responsibility is to teach such learners; or
“(II) as a bilingual or dual language immersion teacher; and
“(iii) who, as certified by the chief administrative officer of the public or nonprofit private elementary school or secondary school in which the borrower is employed, or, in the case of a teacher who is employed by an educational service agency, as certified by the chief administrative officer of such agency—
“(I) is teaching English learners or bilingual or dual language immersion students who correspond with the borrower’s training; and
“(II) has demonstrated knowledge and teaching skills in the content areas of the elementary school or secondary school curriculum that the borrower is teaching.”.
(b) Loan Cancellation for Teachers.—Section 460(c)(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087j(c)(3)) is amended—
(1) in the paragraph heading by striking “Mathematics, science, or special education” and inserting “Mathematics, science, special education, or english language education”;
(2) in subparagraph (A)(ii) by striking “and” at the end;
(3) in subparagraph (B)(iii) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
“(C) an elementary school or secondary school teacher—
“(i) who meets the requirements of subsection (b);
“(ii) whose qualifying employment for purposes of such subsection is—
“(I) as a teacher of English learners (as that term is defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)) whose primary responsibility is to teach such learners; or
“(II) as a bilingual or dual language immersion teacher; and
“(iii) who, as certified by the chief administrative officer of the public or nonprofit private elementary school or secondary school in which the borrower is employed, or, in the case of a teacher who is employed by an educational service agency, as certified by the chief administrative officer of such agency—
“(I) is teaching English learners or bilingual or dual language immersion students who correspond with the borrower’s training; and
“(II) has demonstrated knowledge and teaching skills in the content areas of the elementary school or secondary school curriculum that the borrower is teaching.”.
SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY.
The amendments made by section 2 shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply with respect to individuals who are eligible to receive teacher loan forgiveness under section 428J of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078-10) or teacher loan cancellation under section 460 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 1087j) after such date. <all>
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