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## International Affairs Office, U.S. Department of Education Feb 2008

<http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/edlite-index.html>

General Information Resources About Education in the United States

EDUCATION LAWS AND REGULATIONS

The U.S. education system is not based on one, or even a few, framework
laws. Instead, there are a wide variety of federal, state and local
laws, plus court decisions and regulations that define various aspects
of our decentralized system. In addition, there are rules and policies
adopted by educational associations and individual schools and
institutions that often have legal status with respect to matters within
their competence.

[**Findlaw Library:
Education**](http://library.findlaw.com/education/index.html) provides
links to court decisions and other materials organized by issue topic.

[**Findlaw State Resources
Directory**](http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/#statelaw) provides links
to state constitutions, law codes, regulations, courts, and
legislatures.

[**Municipal Codes on the
Internet**](http://www.generalcode.com/webcode2.html) provides
searchable links to city and county legal codes that have been mounted
on the Internet.

[**The Cornell Legal Information Institute\'s Education Law
Page**](http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/search/index.html) provides
easily used links to all federal and state statutes, regulations, and
court decisions respecting education.

[**Federal Education
Legislation**](http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/edpicks.jhtml?src=ln)
provides an overview of the development of federal legal statutes
pertaining to education and links to current legislative resources.

[**Federal Education
Regulations**](http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/reg/edpicks.jhtml?src=ln)
provides links to current compilations of the regulations developed to
implement federal education laws.

[**Federal Statutory and Regulatory
Guidance**](http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/edpicks.jhtml?src=ln)
provides information on policy letters issued by the U.S. Department of
Education to clarify laws and regulations.

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY

While the federal government has a very limited role in running the U.S.
education system, it does provide important policy leadership and
provides assistance in support of education throughout the nation. The
following resources may be helpful.

[**The White House Home Page**](http://www.whitehouse.gov/) provides
information on Presidential activities and initiatives related to
various topics including education, including links to speeches, press
releases, executive orders, and other documents.

[**The Department of Education\'s Home Page**](http://www.ed.gov/)
describes the federal government's role in education, federal
initiatives and programs, and much more.

[**FirstGov\'s Education, Jobs and Volunteerism
Page**](http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Education_Training.shtml)
provides links to a wide variety of federal education information and
resources from all agencies.

[**U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and
Labor**](http://edlabor.house.gov/) provides information on legislative
bills, hearings, testimony, and other actions pertaining to education in
the lower house of the U.S. Congress.

[**U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions**](http://help.senate.gov/) provides information on legislative
bills, hearings, testimony, and other actions pertaining to education in
the upper house of the U.S. Congress.

THE ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Non-governmental associations provide much of the leadership and
activity on issues of nationwide importance in education. They also
function as representatives of various constituencies and stakeholders,
ranging from citizens' groups to professional and technical
organizations.

[**Educational Organizations and
Associations**](http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/gen/othersites/associations.html)
provides an annotated directory of many national associations,
particularly those involved in primary and secondary education and
educational reform efforts.

[The Washington Higher Education Secretariat
(WHES)](http://www.whes.org/) provides links to major national higher
education associations.

# NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND STATISTICS

An important role of the federal government is the collection, analysis
and publication of national education statistics. The federal government
also supports some educational research activities. Educational research
is also supported by private organizations, universities, and
foundations.

[Institute of Education Sciences
(IES)](http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html) is the
principle federal office concerned with research on education.

[National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)](http://nces.ed.gov/)
is the federal educational statistics office and the principle source
for national data on education topics.

[The Digest of Education
Statistics](http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d06/) is the online
version of the official U.S. annual compilation of statistics on
education. It is searchable by chapter, tables, and topics.

[National Education Data Resource Center
(NEDRC)](http://nces.ed.gov/partners/nedrc/) was created by NCES to deal
with customized data requests and to help users who do not have direct
access to NCES datasets.

[FEDSTATS](http://www.fedstats.gov/) is a directory linking all the
federal statistical agencies and offices, many of which have education
data pertaining to their programmatic areas of focus.

[American Education Research Association (AERA)](http://www.aera.net/)
is a national association concerned with research in all areas of
educational theory, practice and policy.

[Association for the Study of Higher Education
(ASHE)](http://www.ashe.ws/) is a national association concerned with
research on postsecondary (tertiary) education, with links to many
subject-specific research organizations.

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