Law schools plan virtual learning expansion post-pandemic

Two years after nearly all classes moved online because of COVID-19, the nation’s law schools are moving to expand their distance learning opportunities for students.

In March 2020, the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar gave its 196 accredited law schools leeway to offer emergency online courses because of pandemic concerns. With COVID-19 conditions easing, many schools decided to return to in-person classroom settings although 140 law schools received extensions to continue online learning, if needed, for the current semester.

The council, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) as the national accreditor of law schools, now allows up to one-third of the credit hours required for the J.D. degree to be provided through distance education courses. If a law school wants to go beyond the one-third limit, it must apply for a “substantive change” to the council. The rules also limit a first-year law student to 10 hours of online credit.

In January 2015, Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, became the first ABA-approved law school to begin a hybrid on-campus/online program. In May 2021, the council granted a request from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, to offer a total online J.D. degree.

Altogether, seven schools have received variances from the council to offer totally online or substantially hybrid J.D. programs. Three more applications are pending.

At its February 18 meeting, the council adopted several proposals to amend the distance learning rules to better define “Distance Education,” to clarify the one-third instruction rule that would apply without a variation, and to conform its terminology with DOE definitions. The changes, in addition to others approved at the meeting, now likely will go before the ABA House of Delegates in August for its concurrence. Under ABA rules, the House can either concur with proposals, reject them up to two times or return the proposals with recommendations for change. However, final decisions rest with the council.