Based on a national survey of law schools, prominent educational researcher Dr. Perry Zirkel recently found that Loyola University Chicago School of Law appeared to offer the highest number of education law courses. Loyola Chicago was rated ahead of Harvard Law School, NYU School of Law, Stanford Law School, and Boston College Law School for number of course offerings.
These findings were based on an article that was co-authored by Dr. Zirkel and Lauryn P. Ragone and published this summer in the Journal of Law and Education. The article looked at whether law schools offered courses in general education law, special education law, and higher education law; whether law schools offered dual degree programs; whether law schools offered clinical opportunities to work on education law cases; and whether law schools offer Continuing Legal Education (CLE) opportunities for attorneys in education law.
Loyola University Chicago School of Law offers courses in each of the topic areas identified: general education law, special education law, and higher education law. Courses include Education Law and Policy, Special Education Law and Advocacy, Fundamentals of School Law, Labor and Employment in the Education Workplace, Higher Education Law, Title IX Compliance in Higher Education, Special Education Dispute Resolution, and the Educational Advocacy Lab. Students can work on education law cases as part of Loyola’s Stand Up for Each Other (Chicago) educational advocacy program and its Civitas ChildLaw Clinic.
Loyola also offers an annual “Education Law: A Year in Review” program in June, which offers CLE credits to attorneys, and brings together students, faculty, attorneys, educators, and policymakers for a review of key developments in education law and policy over the preceding school year.
