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Title 38, Veterans' BenefitsRelease 119-102

§3500 Purpose

Title 38 › PART III — READJUSTMENT AND RELATED BENEFITS › CHAPTER 35 — SURVIVORS’ AND DEPENDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE › SUBCHAPTER I — DEFINITIONS › § 3500

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Provides education to children when a parent is disabled or dies from a disease or injury that occurred or worsened while serving in the Armed Forces after the beginning of the Spanish‑American War. It also helps surviving spouses of veterans who died from service‑connected disabilities or of veterans with permanent total service‑connected disabilities prepare to support their families at the living standard the veteran could have provided.

Full Legal Text

Title 38, §3500

Veterans' Benefits, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Congress hereby declares that the educational program established by this chapter is for the purpose of providing opportunities for education to children whose education would otherwise be impeded or interrupted by reason of the disability or death of a parent from a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in the Armed Forces after the beginning of the Spanish-American War, and for the purpose of aiding such children in attaining the educational status which they might normally have aspired to and obtained but for the disability or death of such parent. The Congress further declares that the educational program extended to the surviving spouses of veterans who died of service-connected disabilities and to spouses of veterans with a service-connected total disability permanent in nature is for the purpose of assisting them in preparing to support themselves and their families at a standard of living level which the veteran, but for the veteran’s death or service disability, could have expected to provide for the veteran’s family.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1991—Pub. L. 102–83 renumbered section 1700 of this title as this section. 1976—Pub. L. 94–502 substituted “surviving spouses” for “widows”, “spouses” for “wives”, and “the veteran’s” for “his” in two places.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1976 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 94–502 effective Oct. 15, 1976, see section 703(b) of Pub. L. 94–502, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 3693 of this title.

Effective Date

Pub. L. 90–631, § 6(a), Oct. 23, 1968, 82 Stat. 1335, provided that: “The

Amendments

made by the first section and section 2, 3, and 5 of this Act [see Tables for classification] shall take effect on the first day of the second calendar month which begins after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 23, 1968].”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

38 U.S.C. § 3500

Title 38, Veterans' Benefits

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102