20 USC § 3423c - Office of Indian Education

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t20/s3423c"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "20 USC § 3423c - Office of Indian Education"
title_number: 20
title_name: "EDUCATION"
section_number: "3423c"
section_name: "Office of Indian Education"
chapter_number: 48
chapter_name: "DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION"
subchapter_number: "II"
subchapter_name: "ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(Pub. L. 96–88, title II, § 215, as added Pub. L. 103–382, title III, § 372(2), Oct. 20, 1994, 108 Stat. 3977; amended Pub. L. 114–95, title IX, § 9215(v), Dec. 10, 2015, 129 Stat. 2171.)"
---


# § 3423c. Office of Indian Education

**(a)** **Office of Indian Education** There shall be an Office of Indian Education (referred to in this section as “the Office”) in the Department of Education.

**(b)** **Director**

**(1)** **Appointment and reporting** The Office shall be under the direction of the Director, who shall be appointed by the Secretary and who shall report directly to the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.

**(2)** **Duties** The Director shall—

**(A)** be responsible for administering part A of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.];

**(B)** be involved in, and be primarily responsible for, the development of all policies affecting Indian children and adults under programs administered by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education;

**(C)** coordinate the development of policy and practice for all programs in the Department relating to Indian persons; and

**(D)** assist the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in identifying research priorities related to the education of Indian persons.

**(c)** **Indian preference in employment**

**(1)** **In general** The Secretary shall give a preference to Indian persons in all personnel actions in the Office.

**(2)** **Implementation** section 45 of title 25

Such preference shall be implemented in the same fashion as the preference given to any veteran under .

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**Source Credit**: (Pub. L. 96–88, title II, § 215, as added Pub. L. 103–382, title III, § 372(2), Oct. 20, 1994, 108 Stat. 3977; amended Pub. L. 114–95, title IX, § 9215(v), Dec. 10, 2015, 129 Stat. 2171.)

## Editorial Notes

### References in Text

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, referred to in subsec. (b)(2)(A), is , , . Part A of title VI of the Act is classified generally to part A (§ 7401 et seq.) of subchapter VI of chapter 70 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under  and Tables.

### Prior Provisions

A prior  was renumbered section 217 and is classified to .

Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in , Indians, prior to repeal by .

### Amendments

2015—Subsec. (b)(2)(A).  substituted “be responsible for administering part A of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965” for “be responsible for administering this title”.

## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 2015 Amendment

Amendment by  effective , except with respect to certain noncompetitive programs and competitive programs, see , set out as a note under .

### Office of Educational Research and Improvement

The Office of Educational Research and Improvement was established by . Section 3419 was repealed and a new section 3419 establishing the Institute of Educational Sciences was enacted by , , .