Last week, The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity— a panel that advises the U.S. Department of Education on accreditation matters — held a hearing on whether the ABA Council should continue as the national accreditor of law schools. The Committee last Thursday morning voted 11-1 to report that its members couldn’t reach a recommendation. As reported, “Under Secretary Nicholas Kent will now have 90 days to make a final determination on whether to deny the ABA council federal recognition. If Kent decides to end the council’s recognition, the accrediting agency can then appeal that decision to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.The council could also seek legal action if it lost federal recognition.”
It was an unusual hearing. Regardless of one’s view of the ABA Council, during the hearing the Committee asked few questions focused on what many view as critical issues: how unraveling the national accreditation system might impact the quality of legal education in the United States; how de-recognition or continued recognition might impact students, law schools, or the profession, including the impact on those schools whose students rely on ABA accreditation for access to federal financial aid; or how de-recognition might increase regulation or costs if schools are required to comply with multiple state accreditors to maintain bar exam eligibility for all students. The concerns focused primarily on two issues: (1) whether the Council was no longer sufficiently separate and independent from the ABA lawyer’s association; and (2) whether the Council was improper for not more quickly suspending Standard 206 (it suspended the standard after it received guidance from the Department of Education under the Trump Administration in early 2025, but during the Biden Administration had continued to follow the guidance it received from the Department of Education under the Biden Administration).
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