Title 38 — Veterans' BenefitsRelease 119-73not60
§3500 Purpose
Title 38 › Part III— READJUSTMENT AND RELATED BENEFITS › Chapter 35— SURVIVORS’ AND DEPENDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE › Subchapter I— DEFINITIONS › § 3500
Summary
Creates an education program to help children whose schooling was interrupted because a parent was injured or died from a service-related disease or injury in the Armed Forces after the Spanish‑American War began. It also helps surviving spouses and spouses of veterans with permanent total service disabilities prepare to support their families.
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
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60