Education Law Association

The Education Law Association (ELA), founded in 1954 as the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education (NOLPE), provides an unbiased forum for the dissemination of information on current issues in education law. Originally located in Topeka, Kansas, NOLPE changed its name to the Education Law Association and moved to the campus of the University of Dayton, in Ohio, in 1997.

Membership, which is open to anyone interested in education law, currently numbers 1,200 members, with approximately 40 members from non-U.S. countries. According to the mission statement on its Web site, the ELA, as a nonprofit, nonadvocacy organization, “brings together educational and legal scholars and practitioners to inform and advance educational policy and practice through knowledge of the law.” Together with its professional community, ELA “anticipates trends in educational law and supports scholarly research through the highest value print and electronic publications, conferences, and professional forums.”

Encompassing attorneys, administrators, and educators, ELA's inclusive membership policy allows for a broad range of perspective in all areas of education law. It provides an opportunity for people who have a stake in education law to connect with people in different careers who share the same interest.

In February 1954, several individuals, with Ed Bolmeier serving as leader, met to discuss school law at a roundtable discussion at the American Educational Research Association annual banquet. Their discussion report stated the following:

It is no coincidence that 1954 saw the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka bringing education law issues to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. It was clear that education law was a field in and of itself.

In June 1954, Bolmeier convinced the Council of Professors of Educational Administration (CPEA) and Duke University to jointly sponsor a school law conference. Of those attending, several met to discuss their interest in forming a school law organization that stood alone, neither seeking nor accepting connections with any other organization, educational or legal. Each member of this original group, 57 people in total, contributed $1 each to cover organizational expenses. These individuals came from Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. NOLPE was born.

An official constitution was adopted in September 1954, and in January 1955, the following officers were installed: Madaline Kinter Remmlein, president; Lee O. Garber, secretary-treasurer; E. C. Bolmeier, executive committee member to represent schools of education and teacher training institutions; Robert R. Hamilton, executive committee member to represent law school faculties; Nolan D. Pulliam, executive committee member to represent professional staffs of elementary or secondary school systems; and Edgar Fuller, executive committee member to represent those otherwise engaged in educational activities of an official or advisory nature. The four executive committee members were to represent categories of the membership: faculty members of schools of education and teacher training institutions, law school faculty members, professional staffs of elementary and secondary school systems, and those otherwise engaged in educational activities of an official or advisory nature.

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