In Spanish when you use El as in he at the beginning of a sentence does there have to be an accent over the E?

No, there is no need of an accent when you use capital letters, even if it is not in the beginning of the sentence. It's the same in French and in other languages in which some of the Words have accents. And it's for a very simple reason: when you write in your notebook or on the computer, there usually won't be enough place for an accent on capital letters. Besides, one usually understands the meaning of the Word, even if you don't put the accent on the capital letter. But él [with the accent] means he in spanish so you do not want to get that mixed up either so leaving off the accent would be better.