The American Bar Association has never accredited an online law school. However, a new article from Inside Higher Education points out subtle changes that may indicate a growing (albeit hesitant) acceptance for online learning in the study of law. Here's a blurb:

"As online education has become more and more popular, law schools have largely been on the sidelines. The American Bar Association will not accredit distance programs, and has strict limits on the use of distance education in traditional programs...

While the ABA has not changed its rules, it has quietly approved an unusual variance from its procedures to allow the Penn State Dickinson School of Law to offer many more courses at a distance than ABA rules permit. While the effort relates in part to particular characteristics of the Penn State program (which makes use of two physical campuses), the ABA waiver represents the broadest experiment to date in the association giving its blessing to the extensive use of distance education."

The Penn State exception and the Concord Law / Kaplan U merger (blogged about earlier this week) may very well indicate that the tides are turning.