38 U.S.C. § 3500
Section 3500 · Purpose
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 341 Ill. App. 3d 863 - In Re Marriage of Neilsen and Magrini (2003)
Most recently applied in 22 Vet. App. 307 - Darlene S. Cypert v. James B. Peake (December 2008)
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.
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.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
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.
Effective Date of 1976 Amendment
Amendment 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
Section 6(a) of Pub. L. 90–631 provided that: “The amendments made by the first section and sections 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].”