20 U.S.C. § 1720
Section 1720 · Definitions
This is § 221 of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case Gomez v. Illinois State Board of Education (1987)
Most recently applied in Bostock v. Clayton County (June 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purposes of this subchapter—
(a) The term “educational agency” means a local educational agency or a “State educational agency” as defined by section 801(k)1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(b) The term “local educational agency” means a local educational agency as defined by section 801(f)1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(c) The term “segregation” means the operation of a school system in which students are wholly or substantially separated among the schools of an educational agency on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin or within a school on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
(d) The term “desegregation” means desegregation as defined by section 2000c(b) of title 42.
(e) An educational agency shall be deemed to transport a student if any part of the cost of such student's transportation is paid by such agency.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 801 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, referred to in subsecs. (a) and (b), is section 801, title VIII, of Pub. L. 89 10, which was formerly classified to section 881 of this title. Section 801 of that Act was renumbered section 1001 of title X by Pub. L. 95 561, title VIII, §801(1), (2), Nov. 1, 1978, 92 Stat. 2284, and was reclassified to section 3381 of this title. Section 1001 was subsequently renumbered section 8001 and amended generally by Pub. L. 100 297, title I, §1002, Apr. 28, 1988, 102 Stat. 293, and, as so amended, did not contain subsections nor specific definitions. Section 8001 was subsequently omitted in the general amendment of Pub. L. 89 10 by Pub. L. 103 382, title I, §101, Oct. 20, 1994, 108 Stat. 3519. For definitions, see section 8801 of this title.