Montana Law School seeks $1 million and $575,000 feasibility study for low-residency JD program

A decision package seeking $1 million to support development of a low-residency Juris Doctor program at the Montana Law School drew questions from the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education about accreditation, program delivery and the requested feasibility-study costs.

Legislative staff described the package as $1,000,000 to support a digital JD program that would focus on agricultural- and tribal-related law. Committee members asked OCHE and law-school representatives for details, especially about why the budget includes $575,000 for a feasibility study.

OCHE said accreditation standards require a feasibility study as part of program development and that the proposed model is low-residency—not fully online—meaning that students would do some intensive in-person coursework (for example, weekend or weeklong residencies) combined with remote instruction. "Accreditation is the guidepost for some of this. We can't just do it on our own; it's got to go through accreditation and accreditation requires a feasibility study be done," OCHE said.

OCHE noted the request is structured as one-time-only (OTO) funds to launch a program intended to become self-sustaining through tuition and program revenues. Members questioned the scale of the initial feasibility-study budget; OCHE said the funds would cover accredited feasibility work, faculty planning, hiring and initial course development.

Committee members asked for additional detail about the feasibility study’s scope and deliverables; OCHE said it would provide more documentation and that a successful feasibility phase would be followed by further work to staff courses and secure accreditation approval. No formal action was taken; the package remains subject to committee prioritization during executive action.