Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974
Congress passed the EEOA as a house bill amending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The only legislative history available for reference is from a similar bill passed in 1972. The House Committee on Education and Labor noted that the bill was significant in that it contained the first "illustrative definition of a denial of equal educational opportunity", and that this lent clarity to schools, governmental authorities, and students as to what, precisely, their rights were.
Timeline of Latino civil rights in the United States
The Elementary and Secondary Education act of 1965 authorized federal funding as part of the mandate of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The funds were allocated for school districts that were actively striving to raise the achievement level of youths from disadvantaged backgrounds including students whose first language was not English. Throughout the country, Hispanic community groups, which represented this population started urging local education officials to take advantage of the funding in order to improve the schooling opportunities for Hispanic children.