Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-887_k53m.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

ing a reader to the subject of remedies, offering first a gen-
eral and then a qualifying rule on the subject.  In at least 
two  other  places,  IDEA  treats  “remedies”  and  “relief”  as 
synonyms, and we cannot conceive a persuasive reason why 
the  statute  would  operate  differently  only  here.  Section 
1415(i)(2)(C)(iii) directs courts in IDEA cases to “grant such 
relief as the court determines is appropriate.”  (Emphasis 
added.)  That statutory instruction, we have said, author-
izes  courts  to  grant  “as  an  available  remedy”  the  “reim-
bursement” of past educational expenses.  School Comm. of 
Burlington  v.  Department  of  Ed.  of  Mass.,  471  U. S.  359, 
369–370 (1985) (emphasis added).  Elsewhere, IDEA some-
times bars those who reject a school district’s settlement of-
fer from recovering attorney’s fees for later work if “the re-
lief finally obtained . . . is not more favorable . . . than the 
offer.”  §1415(i)(3)(D)(i)(III) (emphasis added).  Once more, 
relief means remedy.

Nor  is  IDEA  particularly  unusual  in  treating  remedies 
and relief as synonyms.  Other provisions in the U. S. Code 
do  too.  By  way  of  example,  18  U. S. C.  §3626(d)  provides
that “[t]he limitations on remedies in this section shall not 
apply  to  relief  entered  by  a  State  court  based  solely  upon
claims arising under State law.”  (Emphases added.)  Like-
wise, 28 U. S. C. §3306(a)(2)–(3) indicate that “the United 
States . . . may obtain . . . a remedy under this chapter . . . 
or . . . any other relief the circumstances may require.”  (Em-
phases added.)

Influencing our thinking as well is the fact that the sec-
ond clause in §1415(l) refers to claims “seeking relief” avail-
able under IDEA.  To “seek” is “[t]o ask for” or “request.”  14 
Oxford English Dictionary, at 877.  And often enough the
phrase “seeking relief” or some variant of it is used in the 
law to refer to the remedies a plaintiff requests.  Under the 
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for example, a plaintiff’s 
complaint  must  include  a  list  of  requested  remedies,  or
what the law calls “a demand for the relief  sought.”  Fed.