California has made significant commitments to expanding access to bilingual education, yet the shortage of adequately trained bilingual teachers remains a major obstacle to achieving biliteracy for the state’s more than 2.1 million multilingual students. This fact sheet, co-authored by the California Budget & Policy Center and Californians Together, examines trends in bilingual teacher authorizations, highlights disparities between multilingual student enrollment and the bilingual teacher workforce, and presents state and local recommendations to strengthen bilingual teacher pathways. The analysis offers education leaders data and actionable strategies to address workforce needs and advance California’s vision of becoming a national leader in access to bilingual education.