Nevada teaching licenses may soon be available to immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children.

The Associated Press reported legislators are considering changes to a law that currently lets the state superintendent award such licenses only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Immigrants who hold a work permit but do not fall into those categories are only eligible if there is a shortage of instructors for the subject they want to teach.

AB27, which is pending before the Silver State's Legislature, however, would allow DREAMers -- the beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program -- to get a teaching license if a district has a teacher shortage of any kind.

The Nevada bill, which stems from an initiative by the Department of Education in Reno, on Monday received a hearing before the state Assembly's education committee.

Allowing DREAMers to fill openings at school across the Silver State only makes sense, argued Assemblywoman Olivia Diaz, a Las Vegas Democrat.

"These are individuals that were basically raised and educated through our public education system and have paid for their college, and they're not able to fulfill that dream of becoming a teacher," Diaz said.

Proponents also point to the need for additional teachers across the state. The Clark County School District in the south, for example, currently has about 600 openings. The district, which serves Nevada's most populous country surrounding Las Vegas, seeks to hire some 2,600 teachers by next school year to ease overcrowding.

At Monday's hearing, most school and business organizations who testified spoke in favor of changing the law.

John Wagner, of the Independent American Party, however, wondered if individuals covered by executive immigration orders would also qualify.

"Would that be someone who was, say, blanketed in by President Obama's amnesty thing?" he said. "I would not be in favor of that."

The committee's legal counsel promised Wagner it would look into the details.

DACA was implemented in June 2013 to allow certain undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before their 16th birthday to be exempt from deportation and receive a two-year work permit. President Barack Obama announced in November 2014 that his administration planned to expand the program and widen eligibility requirements.

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