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Title 20 — EducationRelease 119-73

§9572 Prohibitions

Title 20 › Chapter CHAPTER 76— - EDUCATION RESEARCH, STATISTICS, EVALUATION, INFORMATION, AND DISSEMINATION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - EDUCATION SCIENCES REFORM › Part Part F— - General Provisions › § 9572

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Blocks creation of any nationwide database that holds personally identifiable information about people who take part in studies or data collections under this law. Federal officials may not tell states, school districts, or schools what to teach, how to run programs, or force them to spend money or take on costs that this law does not pay for. Money under this law given to the Institute cannot be used to approve or promote any K–12 curriculum. Money provided under this law to the Secretary or to any award recipient cannot be used to create, test, run, or give a federally sponsored national test in reading, math, or other subjects unless another law clearly allows it. The ban on a national database does not apply to international comparison studies created under sections 9543(a)(6) or 9003(a)(6) as they were the day before November 5, 2002, if those studies test only a representative sample of students in the United States and other countries.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §9572

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Nothing in this subchapter may be construed to authorize the establishment of a nationwide database of individually identifiable information on individuals involved in studies or other collections of data under this subchapter.
(b)Nothing in this subchapter may be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control the curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources of a State, local educational agency, or school, or to mandate a State, or any subdivision thereof, to spend any funds or incur any costs not provided for under this subchapter.
(c)Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law, no funds provided under this subchapter to the Institute, including any office, board, committee, or center of the Institute, may be used by the Institute to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in an elementary school or secondary school.
(d)(1)Subject to paragraph (2), no funds provided under this subchapter to the Secretary or to the recipient of any award may be used to develop, pilot test, field test, implement, administer, or distribute any federally sponsored national test in reading, mathematics, or any other subject, unless specifically and explicitly authorized by law.
(2)Subsection (a) shall not apply to international comparative assessments developed under the authority of section 9543(a)(6) of this title or section 9003(a)(6) of this title (as such section was in effect on the day before November 5, 2002) and administered to only a representative sample of pupils in the United States and in foreign nations.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 9003 of this title, referred to in subsec. (d)(2), was repealed by Pub. L. 107–279, title IV, § 403(1), Nov. 5, 2002, 116 Stat. 1985.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 9572

Title 20 — Education

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73