The Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974 (EEOA) was an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The EEOA came into effect when school boards in the United States were involved in court-required busing of students to desegregate schools and soon after the Supreme Court decided Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado (1973), and Lau v. Nichols (1974). The EEOA is a statute of contradictions. The rights that Congress appeared to grant in its expansive language of equal educational opportunity were undermined by the restricted definition of segregation, the elimination of [Page 303]busing as a corrective remedy, and the ambiguous phrase “appropriate action.” This entry reviews the law and its impact.