Opinion ID: 726069
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exhaustion under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act.

Text: 50 The exhaustion rule applied in Spence was the result of what we termed an incongruent enforcement scheme. 54 F.3d 196, 199 (3d Cir.1995). The Rehabilitation Act provides two avenues by which a plaintiff may sue to redress employment discrimination. The Act contains a provision, section 501, directed specifically at employment discrimination. See 29 U.S.C. § 794. Violations of this provision may be redressed through section 505(a)(1), which permits plaintiffs to invoke [t]he remedies, procedures and rights set forth in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See 29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(1). Title VII's exhaustion requirement therefore applies to plaintiffs suing under section 501. The Act also, however, has a general provision, section 504, which bars discrimination against the disabled (including employment discrimination) in all federally-funded programs. Violations of section 504 may be redressed through section 505(a)(2), which permits plaintiffs to invoke [t]he remedies, procedures and rights not of Title VII, but of Title VI, a title which includes no exhaustion requirement. 29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(2). Although this structure created the appearance that a plaintiff might be able to circumvent the exhaustion requirement applicable to section 501 through the simple expedient of suing under section 504, in Spence we found that it was appropriate to conclude that Congress intended to require that a plaintiff bringing an employment discrimination claim under either section 501 or section 504 first exhaust her administrative remedies. See Spence, 54 F.3d at 199-202. 51 Spence involved very unusual circumstances, which do not obtain here. The provisions of the Rehabilitation Act and of the ADA invoked by the Hunters are not, by the terms of those two statutes, subject to any exhaustion requirements. 17 Nor do the Hunters' claims have the effect of circumventing some other Congressionally-mandated exhaustion requirement. Indeed, the only related exhaustion requirement imposed by Congress is IDEA's requirement, in section 1415(f), that a party who brings a claim that seeks relief also available under IDEA must first exhaust IDEA's administrative remedies. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f). This the Hunters have done with respect to their ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims, by following the elaborate route of a due process hearing and review by an appellate panel. In the absence of any incongruity in the IDEA scheme, there is no need to impose any further exhaustion requirement.