---
kind: "section"
citation: "20 U.S.C. § 1701"
title: "20"
title_heading: "Education"
number: "1701"
heading: "Congressional declaration of policy"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/20/1701"
units:
  - "Chapter 39 — Equal Educational Opportunities and Transportation of Students"
  - "Subchapter I — Equal Educational Opportunities"
  - "Part 1 — Policy and Purpose"
---

# §1701. Congressional declaration of policy

- (a) **Entitlement to equal educational opportunity; neighborhood as appropriate basis—** The Congress declares it to be the policy of the United States that—
  - (1) all children enrolled in public schools are entitled to equal educational opportunity without regard to race, color, sex, or national origin; and
  - (2) the neighborhood is the appropriate basis for determining public school assignments.
- (b) **Purpose—** In order to carry out this policy, it is the purpose of this subchapter to specify appropriate remedies for the orderly removal of the vestiges of the dual school system.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 93–380, title II, § 202, Aug. 21, 1974, 88 Stat. 514.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on and after sixtieth day after Aug. 21, 1974, see section 2(c) of Pub. L. 93–380, set out as a note under section 1221–1 of this title.

### Short Title

Pub. L. 93–380, title II, § 201, Aug. 21, 1974, 88 Stat. 514, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter and section 1228 of this title and amending section 1608 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974’.”