Source: https://thirdcircuit.lexroll.com/a-w-v-jersey-city-486-f-3d-791-3rd-cir-2007/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 17:59:46+00:00

Document:
A.W. v. JERSEY CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS; New Jersey Department of Education; Jeffrey V. Osowski, former Director, Division of Special Education; Barbara Gantwerk, Director, Office of Special Education Programs; Silvia Elias, former Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services; Priscilla Petrosky, Associate Superintendent for Special Education; John Iwanowski; Mary Hepburn; Joan Edmiston; Denise Braak; Mary Maceachern; Edward Fauerbach, Learning Disabilities Teacher-Consultants; Norma Chrisomalis; Gwendolyn Jackson; Linda Colon; Ronne Bassman; William Ronzitti; Roxanne Johnson, Supervisors of Special Education; Sharnette Green, Teacher; Melinda Zangrillo, Coordinator of Compliance; Jane Doe and John Doe (1)-(5), all in their official and individual capacities. New Jersey Department of Education; Jeffrey V. Osowski; Melinda Zangrillo; Barbara Gantwerk, Appellants.
No. 05-2553.United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.Argued July 10, 2006. Reargued En Banc February 21, 2007.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Jose L. Linares, J.
Michael C. Walters [argued], Office of Attorney General of New Jersey, Division of Law, Trenton, NJ, for Appellants.
Stephen M. Latimer, Loughlin Latimer, Hackensack, NJ, Elizabeth A. Athos [argued], Education Law Center, Newark, NJ, Rebecca K. Spar [argued-en banc], Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman Leonard, Hackensack, NJ, for Appellee.
Argued July 10, 2006 Before: SLOVITER, McKEE and RENDELL, Circuit Judges.
Before: SCIRICA, Chief Judge, SLOVITER, McKEE, RENDELL, BARRY, AMBRO, FUENTES, SMITH, FISHER, JORDAN and VAN ANTWERPEN[*] , Circuit Judges.
[*] Honorable Franklin S. Van Antwerpen assumed senior status on October 23, 2006 after the case was initially argued and continues to participate in the matter pursuant to I.O.P. 9.6.4.
rights and the opinions of our sister courts of appeals that have questioned Matula.
The District Court, relying on Matula, held that the alleged violations of plaintiff’s rights were actionable under § 1983 and denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity, concluding that plaintiffs cause of action could be maintained and there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find that defendants violated clearly established federal law. We will reverse.
In January 2001, A.W., a dyslexic former student of the Jersey City Public Schools (“JCPS”), filed this action in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. A.W. alleged that New Jersey officials failed to comply with federal law and, as a result, deprived him of a free, appropriate public education. In addition to suing JCPS and its officials, A.W. also brought claims against Barbara Gantwerk, Director of the Office of Special Education Programs for the New Jersey Department of Education (“NJDOE”), and Melinda Zangrillo, Coordinator of Compliance at NJDOE, in their personal capacities.
With respect to Gantwerk and Zangrillo, A.W. asserted that, in response to his December 1997 complaint alleging that he had unidentified and untreated dyslexia, Gantwerk and Zangrillo conducted an inadequate investigation and provided no relief to A.W., despite ample evidence of A.W.’s disability. In A.W.’s amended complaint, he sought to hold Gantwerk and Zangrillo personally liable under § 1983 for violations of A.W.’s rights under the IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (“Section 504”), 29 U.S.C. § 794.
Following the completion of all discovery other than expert depositions, defendants moved for summary judgment on numerous grounds, including qualified immunity and a challenge to the use of § 1983 to remedy the alleged violations of the IDEA and Section 504. On April 21, 2005, the District Court struck A.W.’s claim for declaratory relief and denied summary judgment to the defendants on all other bases. The Court found that the IDEA could be enforced through an action under § 1983 based on our decision in W.B. v. Matula, 67 F.3d 484, 494 (3d Cir.1995), wherein we specifically reasoned that § 1983 was available to redress a violation of a student’s rights secured by the IDEA. The District Court also rejected defendants’ argument that individuals could not be sued under § 1983 for alleged violations of the IDEA and Section 504 because these statutes impose liability only on entities that receive federal funding. Finally, the Court denied defendants qualified immunity because A.W. adduced sufficient proof that defendants had violated A.W.’s clearly established rights under the IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act. Gantwerk and Zangrillo now appeal.
The District Court had subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and § 1343. Its order denying qualified immunity comes to us as a “final” order for review under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (holding denial of claim of qualified immunity is appealable as a “final decision”).
We will engage in plenary review of a district court’s summary judgment ruling on qualified immunity, Kopec v. Tate, 361 F.3d 772, 775 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 956, 125 S.Ct. 453, 160 L.Ed.2d 317 (2004), and apply the same summary judgment standard that guided the district court Rivas v. City of Passaic, 365 F.3d 181, 193 (3d Cir.2004). A party is entitled to summary judgment when it demonstrates that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the evidence establishes its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In considering a motion for summary judgment, we consider all evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Brewer v. Quaker State Oil Ref. Corp., 72 F.3d 326, 330 (3d Cir.1995).
The first issue we confront is whether we should decide the availability of § 1983 relief for the alleged violations of A.W.’s statutory rights as part of the qualified immunity inquiry that is the basis for the appeal before us. We conclude we can, and should.
We have jurisdiction to decide this question because it arises in the course of our analysis of defendants’ request for qualified immunity. Under Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001), a court analyzing a claim of qualified immunity must first ask the “threshold” question: whether the facts alleged show that the official’s conduct violated a constitutional right. Id. at 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151. If the plaintiffs allegations establish the violation of a constitutional right, the violation is necessarily actionable and the court can then proceed to the second inquiry in the Saucier analysis: whether the right was “clearly established.” Id.
“threshold” inquiry in the Saucier two-part qualified immunity analysis applied to constitutional claims. See Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194, 198 n. 3, 125 S.Ct. 596, 160 L.Ed.2d 583 (2004) (per curiam) (labeling the first inquiry in Saucier two-step analysis as the “constitutional question”).
(quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985)).
Here, the District Court followed our decision i Matula, where we held that violations of IDEA-created rights are actionable under § 1983. Matula, 67 F.3d at 494. Concluding that it was bound by Matula to so rule, the District Court noted that “only one judicial body is able to overrule Third Circuit precedent, and this Court is not it.” A.W. v. Jersey City Pub. Schs., No. 01-140, slip op. at 14 (D.N.J. Apr.21, 2005). In light of the recent, clear guidance provided by the Supreme Court in City of Rancho Polos Verdes v. Abrams, 544 U.S. 113, 125 S.Ct. 1453, 161 L.Ed.2d 316 (2005), regarding the availability of § 1983 to remedy statutory violations, and the well-reasoned opinions of the Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Tenth Circuits in Sellers v. School Board of Manassas, Virginia, 141 F.3d 524 (4th Cir.1998), and Padilla v. School District No. 1, 233 F.3d 1268, 1273 (10th Cir.2000), rejecting our holding in Matula, we now conclude that we should not continue to adhere to the principle we established in Matula.
When the rights at issue are statutory, however, a § 1983 action is impermissible when “Congress intended to foreclose such private enforcement.” Wright v. Roanoke Redevelopment Housing Authority, 479 U.S. 418, 423, 107 S.Ct. 766, 93 L.Ed.2d 781 (1987). Such an intent is generally found either in the express language of a statute or where a statutory remedial scheme is so comprehensive that an intent to prohibit enforcement other than by the statute’s own means may be inferred. Id.
Matula, 67 F.3d at 493.
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to restrict or limit the rights, procedures, and remedies available under the Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, title V of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or other Federal laws protecting the rights of children with disabilities, except that before the filing of a civil action under such laws seeking relief that is also available under this subchapter, the procedures under subsections (f) and (g) of this section shall be exhausted to the same extent as would be required had the action been brought under this subchapter.
H.R. Rep. No. 99-296, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. 4 (1985) (“House Report”) (first emphasis added). Section 1415 [(l)] was thus enacted to “reaffirm, in light of [Smith], the viability of section 504, 42 U.S.C 1983, and other statutes as separate vehicles for ensuring the rights of handicapped children.” Id.
§ 1983 actions predicated on IDEA then, we conclude that Congress explicitly approved such actions.” Id.
compels the conclusion that, as a matter of law, an aggrieved parent or disabled child is not barred from seeking monetary damages in such an action.
Id. at 495. We should note that we were not alone in this view at the time, as we cited to numerous other courts’ opinions that approved § 1983 actions to enforce IDEA rights. See id. (collecting cases).
However, following Matula, reasonable minds have differed as to the correctness of our interpretation of the congressional reaction to Smith v. Robinson embodied in § 1415(l). In addition, over the past decade, the Supreme Court has further refined its guidance as to how we should decide whether § 1983 relief is available for violations of statutory rights, most recently in City of Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams, 544 U.S. 113, 120, 125 S.Ct. 1453, 161 L.Ed.2d 316 (2005). All of these developments sinc Matula have informed our analysis in a way that requires us to reconsider our view.
By preserving rights and remedies “under the Constitution,” section 1415[(l)] does permit plaintiffs to resort to section 1983 for constitutional violations, notwithstanding the similarity of such claims to those stated directly under IDEA. But section 1415[(0] does not permit plaintiffs to sue under section 1983 for an IDEA violation, which is statutory in nature. Nothing in section 1415 [(l)] overrules the Court’s decision in Smith to the extent it held that Congress intended IDEA to provide the sole remedies for violations of that same statute.
Id. (internal citations omitted). The court further disagreed with the notion that the legislative history reveals the requisite intent to permit § 1983 suits merely because § 1983 is referred to in the House Reports. Id. at 531. The court concluded that insofar as one of the specific substantive provisions preserved in § 1415(l) is the Constitution, it was not surprising that the legislative history referenced § 1983, which provides a vehicle for redressing violations of constitutional rights. Id.
“When construed in their most natural form, the excerpts demonstrate the unremarkable proposition that Congress intended section 1415[(l)] to restore the ability of disabled children and their parents or guardians to utilize section 1983 to protect constitutional rights.” Id.
that there was no apparent limitation on the availability of relief for violations of the IDEA by way of § 1983.
Were we deciding this case in the year 2001, after these courts had voiced their disagreement with Matula, we might be conflicted as to whether to revisit the issue. On the one hand, the Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Tenth Circuits offered the convincing arguments, noted above, as to how Congress’ enactment of § 1415(l) did not provide for § 1983 as a remedial tool here, and as to how our analysis with respect to the availability of relief in Matula was incomplete in light of other Supreme Court cases. On the other hand, several other courts had expressed views similar to ours in Matula, or had assumed § 1983 to be available. While the former may have tipped the scales somewhat towards rethinking Matula even then, the Supreme Court’s discussion of the availability of § 1983 as a vehicle for redressing violations of federal statutory rights in Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. 113, 125 S.Ct. 1453, has tipped them definitively, and we are now convinced that our ruling in Matula is no longer sound.
Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. 113, 125 S.Ct. 1453, is the most recent Supreme Court pronouncement on the availability of § 1983 to redress violations of federal statutes, and it provides the best guidance in this area. It is interesting to note what had, and had not, been said by the Supreme Court about the use of § 1983 prior to Rancho Palos Verdes, and prior to Matula. It is also interesting to note tha Franklin, the case we relied upon so heavily i Matula, was not a § 1983 case at all; rather, it focused on whether damages could be recovered in an action to enforce Title IX. Thus, the idea that “we presume the availability of all appropriate remedies unless Congress has expressly indicated otherwise,” Franklin, 503 U.S. at 66, 112 S.Ct. 1028, was not a concept developed in the Supreme Court’s § 1983 jurisprudence.
(1984), held that allowing a plaintiff to circumvent the Education of the Handicapped Act’s administrative remedies would be inconsistent with Congress’ carefully tailored scheme, which itself allowed private parties to seek remedies for violating federal law.
479 U.S. at 423, 107 S.Ct. 766. But the Court then went on to state that “`[w]e do not lightly conclude that Congress intended to preclude reliance on § 1983 as a remedy’ for the deprivation of a federally secured right.” Id. at 423-24, 107 S.Ct. 766 (quoting Smith, 468 U.S. at 1012, 104 S.Ct. 3457). In a 5-to-4 decision, the Court ruled that § 1983 was an available remedy for housing authority tenants whose rights under the rent ceiling provision of the Housing Act were allegedly violated. Id. at 429, 107 S.Ct. 766.
enforcement arsenal” in Smith and Sea Clammers. Blessing, 520 U.S. at 348, 117 S.Ct. 1353.
for the alleged violations of the plaintiffs rights under the Act Id. at 120-21, 125 S.Ct. 1453. The plaintiff i Rancho Palos Verdes had applied to the City Planning Commission for a permit to allow commercial use of his radio antenna. Id. at 1456. After the permit application was denied, the plaintiff sued for injunctive relief under § 332(c)(7)(B)(v) of the Communications Act and for money damages and attorneys’ fees under § 1983 and 42 U.S.C. § 1988 Id. at 118, 125 S.Ct. 1453. The Supreme Court concluded that § 1983 was not available to redress the alleged violations of the plaintiffs statutory rights.
The Court reiterated that to sustain a § 1983 action for the violation of a statutory right, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the federal statute creates an individually enforceable right in the class of beneficiaries to which he belongs Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 285, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 153 L.Ed.2d 309 (2002). This demonstration creates a rebuttable presumption that the right is enforceable under § 1983. However, the “defendant may defeat this presumption by demonstrating that Congress did not intend that remedy for a newly created right.” Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. at 120, 125 S.Ct. 1453. “[E]vidence of such congressional intent may be found directly in the statute creating the right, or inferred from the statute’s creation of a `comprehensive enforcement scheme that is incompatible with individual enforcement under § 1983.'” Id. (quotin Blessing v. Freestone, 520 U.S. 329, 341, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 137 L.Ed.2d 569 (1997)).
In discussing its prior decisions on the availability of § 1983 as a remedy for violations of statutory rights, the Court noted that in all of the cases in which it found § 1983 available to provide a remedy for a violation of statutory rights, the statute at issue did not contain a private judicial remedy (or, in most of the cases, even a private administrative remedy). Id. at 121, 125 S.Ct. 1453. The Court also reminded us yet again that it had found that § 1983 was not an available remedy for violation of statutory rights in only two prior cases: Sea Clammers and Smith. In both of those cases, express, private means of redress were provided for in the statutes themselves. Id. at 121, 125 S.Ct. 1453.
remedy was not intended to be comprehensive.
The Court found that the Telecommunications Act did provide an express, private judicial remedy and that there was no textual indication that the remedy provided was meant “to complement, rather than supplant, § 1983.” Id. The Court also noted that the remedy made available by the Telecommunications Act “adds no remedies to those available under § 1983, and limits relief in ways that § 1983 does not.” Id. at 122, 125 S.Ct. 1453. The Court finally dismissed the plaintiffs argument that the “savings clause” in the Telecommunications Act was an express statement of Congress’ intent not to preclude an action under § 1983. Id. at 126, 125 S.Ct. 1453. The Court concluded that the clause did not require a court to permit enforcement of the Act under § 1983, but rather underscored Congress’s intent that “the claims available under § 1983 prior to the enactment of the [Communications Act] continue to be available after its enactment.” Id.
Guided by the method of analysis outlined in Rancho Palos Verdes, we now look to the IDEA to determine whether Congress intended to allow rights granted by the IDEA to be remedied through a § 1983 action. For purposes of this appeal, the parties do not dispute that the IDEA creates individually enforceable rights in the class of beneficiaries to which A.W. belongs. Therefore, we presume that Congress intended § 1983 to be an available remedy for violations of the IDEA Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 285, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 153 L.Ed.2d 309 (2002). Defendants, however, can rebut this presumption by showing that Congress did not so intend. Accordingly, we look to whether there is an express, private means of redress in the IDEA itself, which, absent some textual indication to the contrary, would indicate that Congress did not intend to leave open a more expansive remedy under § 1983 See Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. at 121, 125 S.Ct. 1453.
Under the IDEA, any aggrieved party may “present a complaint . . . with respect to any matter relating to the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of the child, or the provision of a free appropriate public education to such child.”20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(6). The party may elect to have the complaint investigated by the state educational agency see 34 C.F.R. § 300.661, or avail itself of an “impartial due process hearing,” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f). Any party aggrieved by the outcome of the due process hearing “shall have the right to bring a civil action with respect to the complaint presented . . . in a district court of the United States, without regard to the amount in controversy.”20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(A). This action must be initiated within 90 days from the date of the hearing officer’s decision. § 1415(i)(2)(B). The district court is authorized to grant “such relief as the court determines is appropriate,” including attorneys’ fees, reimbursement for a private educational placement, and compensatory education. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B)(i) (attorneys’ fees); Burlington Sch. Comm. v. Dep’t of Educ., 471 U.S. 359, 470, 105 S.Ct. 1996, 85 L.Ed.2d 385 (1985) (reimbursement); Lester H. v. Gilhool, 916 F.2d 865, 873 (3d Cir.1990) (compensatory education). We conclude that these provisions of the IDEA create an express, private means of redress. This, then, means that a § 1983 action is not available to remedy violations of IDEA-created rights, absent some “textual indication, express or implicit, that the [statutory] remedy is to complement, rather than supplant, § 1983.” Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. at 122, 125 S.Ct. 1453.
A.W. argues that the “ordinary inference that the remedy provided in the statute is exclusive” is overcome by the “textual indication” in § 1415(0 of the IDEA that the remedies provided for in the statute are “to complement, rather than supplant, § 1983.” Id. However, finding the reasoning of Sellers and Padilla convincing, we do not agree that § 1415(l) shows that Congress intended the remedies in the IDEA to complement, rather than supplant, § 1983. Just like the savings clause in Rancho Palos Verdes, this provision merely evidences Congress’ intent that “the claims available under § 1983 prior to the enactment of the [Act] continue to be available after its enactment.” Id. at 126, 125 S.Ct. 1453. We also reject A.W.’s contention that the references to § 1983 in the legislative history of § 1415(l) show that Congress intended to preserve the availability of § 1983 to remedy violations of IDEA-created rights, as we concur with the explanation of those references provided in Sellers. See Sellers, 141 F.3d at 531 (concluding that, insofar as § 1415(l) preserved actions based on violations of constitutional rights, it is not surprising that the legislative history referenced § 1983, which provides a vehicle for redressing violations of constitutional rights).
We agree with the reasoning of the Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Tenth Circuits, to say nothing of that of the Supreme Court in Smith, regarding the comprehensive nature of the IDEA’S remedial scheme. The holding in Smith, although superseded in part by the passage of § 1415(l) of the IDEA, was not overruled to the extent that the Court found that the IDEA provides a comprehensive remedial scheme. Indeed, since Smith, the Court has continued to refer to the IDEA as an example of a statutory enforcement scheme that precludes a § 1983 remedy. See Rancho Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. at 121, 125 S.Ct. 1453 Blessing v. Freestone, 520 U.S. 329, 347-48, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 137 L.Ed.2d 569 (1997); Wright v. Roanoke Redev. Hous. Auth., 479 U.S. 418, 423-24, 427, 107 S.Ct. 766, 93 L.Ed.2d 781 (1987). The IDEA includes a judicial remedy for violations of any right “relating to the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of [a] child, or the provision of a free appropriate public education to such child.” § 1415(b)(6). Given this comprehensive scheme, Congress did not intend § 1983 to be available to remedy violations of the IDEA such as those alleged by A.W.
Similarly, we must examine Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to determine whether Congress intended to allow rights granted therein to be remedied through a § 1983 action. We look first to what means of redress are available under the statute itself.
(2001)). “Thus Congress, in essence, provided a private right of action under Section 504 by incorporating Title VI’s `remedies, procedures, and rights’ into the statute.” Three Rivers Ctr. for Indep. Living v. Hous. Auth. of Pittsburgh, 382 F.3d 412, 425-26 (3d Cir.2004).
The remedies for violation of Section 504 “are coextensive with the remedies available in a private cause of action brought under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Gorman, 536 U.S. at 185, 122 S.Ct. 2097. These remedies include compensatory damages, injunctive relief, and other forms of relief traditionally available in suits for breach of contract. See id. at 187, 122 S.Ct. 2097. Punitive damages are not available. Id. Suits may be brought pursuant to Section 504 against recipients of federal financial assistance, but not against individuals. Emerson v. Thiel Coll, 296 F.3d 184, 190 (3d Cir.2002).
It is beyond question that Section 504’s remedial scheme is far less detailed than the IDEA’s remedial scheme. See Powell v. Ridge, 189 F.3d 387, 402 (3d Cir.1999) (suggesting that Title VI, unlike the IDEA, does not establish “an elaborate procedural mechanism to protect the rights of [individual plaintiffs]”), abrogated on other grounds by S. Camden Citizens in Action v. N.J. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot., 274 F.3d 771, 777-78 (3d Cir.2001). However, we disagree with A.W.’s argument that “there is simply no remedial scheme at all that governs Section 504.” Appellee Supp. Br. 20. Even though there is no express, private right of action within Section 504, Congress clearly incorporated, through adoption of Title VI’s remedial scheme, a private, judicial remedy for violations of the statute. The availability of a judicial remedy for the alleged statutory violations carries significant weight in our analysis of whether Congress intended to allow violations of Section 504 to be actionable under § 1983. We must determine whether the existence of this remedy carries with it the presumptive force set forth in Rancho Palos Verdes.
(D.Nev.2001) (“Given the Supreme Court decisions and the intervening congressional action, we conclude that Congress intended to create a private right of action in Title IX to secure enforcement of its provisions and that this implied right of action is part of Title IX’s enforcement scheme. When combining Title IX’s administrative remedies and private right of action, `the remedial devices provided in [Title IX] are sufficiently comprehensive . . . to demonstrate congressional intent to preclude the remedy of suits under § 1983.'”).
We recognize that two of our sister courts of appeals have concluded that the remedial scheme in Title IX is not comprehensive. See Crawford v. Davis, 109 F.3d 1281, 1284 (8th Cir.1997); Lillard v. Shelby County Bd. of Educ., 76 F.3d 716, 723 (6th Cir.1996). These courts, however, did not consider the implied private right of action under Title IX as part of the statute’s “remedial scheme.” We disagree with this approach. Nothing in Rancho Palos Verdes or in the Supreme Court’s prior decisions on this subject, suggests that a statute’s “remedial scheme” encompasses only those remedies that are expressly identified in the statute. Implied private rights of action, like express rights of actions, provide a means for private litigants to remedy violations of their statutory rights. The difference between implied and express private rights of action is that the former are implicit in Congress’s enactments, rather than apparent on their face. We do not consider this difference to be meaningful.
Palos Verdes, 544 U.S. at 122, 125 S.Ct. 1453. Accordingly, we conclude that § 1983 is not available to provide a remedy for defendants’ alleged violations of A.W.’s rights under Section 504.
A.W. has not alleged an actionable violation of his rights under the IDEA or Section 504. Accordingly, we will reverse the order of the District Court denying defendants’ motion for qualified immunity and remand to the District Court for entry of judgment in favor of defendants.
 A.W. reached a settlement with JCPS and its officials in February 2004.
 The procedure leading to the amendment of A.W.’s original complaint was as follows: the NJDOE defendants, including Gantwerk and Zangrillo, filed a motion to dismiss A.W.’s complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, based on sovereign immunity and other grounds. A.W. filed a motion in opposition and also filed a motion to amend his complaint. On March 18, 2002, the District Court issued an order denying the motion to dismiss and granting A.W. leave to file an amended complaint. The defendants appealed this order, which we affirmed, holding that the various defendants had waived sovereign immunity from suit under the IDEA and Section 504 by accepting federal financial assistance. See A.W. v. Jersey City Pub. Schs., 341 F.3d 234 (3d Cir.2003).
 The official’s conduct in Saucier allegedly violated the plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights and was actionable pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971). The analysis in Saucier is equally applicable to actions for alleged constitutional violations brought pursuant to § 1983. See Scott v. Harris, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 1774, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007).
 A.W. has not brought claims against defendants directly under the IDEA or Section 504. Appellee Br. 15. We therefore need not address whether defendants could be sued directly under these statutes, rather than under § 1983.
 We also think that it can be said that the question of whether § 1983 is available to remedy violations of the IDEA and Section 504 is “`inextricably intertwined’ with the issue of qualified immunity, that is, . . . its review is `necessary to ensure meaningful review’ of the qualified immunity issue,” and that we therefore have jurisdiction over this aspect of the District Court’s order. See Walker v. City of Pine Bluff, 414 F.3d 989, 993 (8th Cir.2005); see also Farm Labor Org. Comm. v. Ohio State Highway Patrol, 308 F.3d 523, 549 (6th Cir.2002) (“Under the doctrine of pendent appellate jurisdiction, . . . a court of appeals may, in its discretion, `exercise jurisdiction over issues that are not independently appealable when those issues are “inextricably intertwined” with matters over which the appellate court properly and independently has jurisdiction.'”) (quoting Chambers v. Ohio Dep’t of Human Servs., 145 F.3d 793, 797 (6th Cir.1998); Malik v. Brown, 71 F.3d 724, 727 (9th Cir.1995)).
 The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a strikingly similar situation has also viewed the issue of the availability of relief as a threshold issue and, concluding that § 1983 was not available to remedy the alleged statutory violations, dismissed an appeal of a denial of qualified immunity as moot See Morris-Hayes v. Bd. of Educ. of Chester Union Free Sch. Dist., 423 F.3d 153, 159 (2d Cir.2005). We choose a different approach, ending up with the same result.
 The District Court did not specifically address whether the alleged Section 504 violations were actionable under § 1983, perhaps because defendants focused their arguments on the alleged IDEA violations. We address this issue, however, because determining whether an alleged statutory violation is actionable is part and parcel of our “threshold” inquiry into defendants’ qualified immunity defense.
 The Smith decision refers to the Education of the Handicapped Act (“EHA”). Congress changed the name of the statute to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) in 1990. See Pub.L. No. 101-476, 104 Stat. 1141 (1990). To avoid confusion, we refer to the statute throughout this opinion as the IDEA.
 At the time we decided Matula, this provision was codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f). Throughout this opinion, we refer to it at its current location in the Code, § 1415(l).
 Several district courts have also made this observation See, e.g., Carney v. Nevada, No. 05 Civ. 713, 2007 WL 777697, at *3 (D.Nev. Mar. 12, 2007); Alex G. v. Bd. of Trustees of Davis Joint Unified Sch. Dist., 332 F.Supp.2d 1315, 1318-19 (E.D.Cal.2004) (“[I]t appears that Congress intended to permit § 1983 suits to enforce rights secured independently of the IDEA. But this does not mean that Congress also intended to allow plaintiffs to use § 1983 to enforce the IDEA, thereby foregoing the various procedural and remedial requirements and restrictions that exist when a claim is brought under the IDEA.”).
 In Sellers, the court also called upon an interpretive rule whereby, because the IDEA was enacted pursuant to Congress’ spending power, the statutory response t Smith should not be read to impose liability on state officials unless it is unambiguous. The court found a lack of the requisite clarity, in that § 1415(l) does not state or imply that § 1983 suits may be brought for IDEA violations. 141 F.3d at 530.
 The courts that have concluded that Congress intended to allow recourse to § 1983 to remedy IDEA violations have based their reasoning on the same reading of the legislative history of the IDEA that we adopted in Matula. See Marie O. v. Edgar, 131 F.3d 610, 620-22 (7th Cir.1997) (relying on § 1415(l) and holding that Congress did not foreclose the enforcement of Part H of the IDEA through § 1983); Digre v. Roseville Schs., 841 F.2d 245, 250 (8th Cir.1988) (holding § 1983 is available to remedy IDEA and constitutional violations, as a result of the passage of § 1415(l)). The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has also allowed IDEA-based § 1983 claims to proceed, but without acknowledging that violations of statutory rights are not actionable under § 1983 if Congress did not so intend See Weixel v. Bd. of Educ., 287 F.3d 138, 151 (2d Cir.2002) (reinstating § 1983 claim because plaintiff stated a cause of action under the IDEA, but not addressing whether IDEA violations were actionable under § 1983); Mrs. W. v. Tirozzi, 832 F.2d 748, 754 (2d Cir.1987) (finding that money damages are available in § 1983 action based on IDEA violation, but not addressing whether Congress intended § 1983 to provide a remedy for IDEA violations). Finally, some courts of appeals have not clearly decided whether § 1983 is available only to remedy violations of the constitutional rights of children with disabilities, or also to remedy violations of IDEA-created rights. See Gean v. Hattaway, 330 F.3d 758, 773 (6th Cir.2003) (noting that IDEA claims can “in some circumstances” be brought under § 1983 and citing case in which § 1983 action was brought to remedy violations of disabled student’s constitutional rights); Angela L. v. Pasadena Ind. Sch. Dist., 918 F.2d 1188, 1193 n. 3 (5th Cir.1990) (stating in dicta that aggrieved parents of disabled children can still “obtain relief through § 1983, as a result of the passage of § 1415(l).
 The Telecommunications Act amended the Communications Act of 1934 to include § 332(c)(7).
 The Court’s opinion in Rancho Palos Verdes did not address the legislative history of the Telecommunications Act, nor discuss whether it is appropriate to consider a statute’s legislative history as evidence of what Congress intended. However, Justice Stevens suggested in his concurrence in Rancho Palos Verdes that the Court assumed “that the legislative history of the statute is totally irrelevant” in discerning whether Congress intended to allow § 1983 actions. 544 U.S. at 131, 125 S.Ct. 1453 (Stevens, J., concurring). It is therefore not clear whether a statute’s legislative history qualifies as the sort of “textual indication, explicit or implicit,” id. at 122, 125 S.Ct. 1453, that may guide us in determining whether Congress intended a statute’s remedy to be exclusive of § 1983. We need not decide this question, however, as the legislative history provides no additional support for A.W.’s position.
 For some employment-related claims, the Rehabilitation Act incorporates the remedial scheme provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, rather than that of Title VI. 29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(1). Title VII, unlike Title VI, mandates that aggrieved employees exhaust certain EEOC procedures prior to filing an action in court. Several of the decisions cited by defendants are therefore easily distinguishable because they examine the remedial scheme provided by Title VII, rather than Title VI. See Lollar v. Baker, 196 F.3d 603, 610 n. 8 (5th Cir.1999); Holbrook v. City of Alpharetta, 112 F.3d 1522, 1531 (11th Cir.1997); see also Vinson v. Thomas, 288 F.3d 1145 (9th Cir.2002) (relying o Lollar in nonemployment case without acknowledging that Title VI, rather than Title VII, procedures are used for non-employment related complaints under Section 504).

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