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Title 20, EducationRelease 119-110

§3403 Relationship with States

Title 20 › CHAPTER 48 — DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION › SUBCHAPTER I — GENERAL PROVISIONS › § 3403

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Protect state and local control of education. Congress created the Department of Education to protect the rights of state and local governments and public and private schools to run their own programs and set their own policies. Department officials cannot direct schools' curriculum, operations, staff, accrediting bodies, or choices of books and instructional materials unless a law allows it. For eight months after May 4, 1980, the Secretary cannot withhold, suspend, or end funds for programs moved into the Department just because a State did not administer the program through a single agency required by law.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §3403

Education, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Rights of local governments and educational institutions
It is the intention of the Congress in the establishment of the Department to protect the rights of State and local governments and public and private educational institutions in the areas of educational policies and administration of programs and to strengthen and improve the control of such governments and institutions over their own educational programs and policies. The establishment of the Department of Education shall not increase the authority of the Federal Government over education or diminish the responsibility for education which is reserved to the States and the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States.
(b)Curriculum, administration, and personnel; library resources
No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law.
(c)Funding under pre-existing programs
The Secretary shall not, during the period within eight months after May 4, 1980, take any action to withhold, suspend, or terminate funds under any program transferred by this chapter by reason of the failure of any State to comply with any applicable law requiring the administration of such a program through a single organizational unit.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification In subsec. (c), “May 4, 1980” substituted for “the

Effective Date

of this chapter” pursuant to section 601 of Pub. L. 96–88, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 3401 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 3403

Title 20, Education

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110