The right to receive a “free & appropriate public education” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); Parent’s right to sue; 20 USC § 1415(i)(2)(A); Whether parents can bring a suit under the IDEA without first pursuing an administrative hearing; Failure to exhaust the IDEA’s administrative remedies; § 1415(l); Exceptions; Whether there is a “systemic violations” exception to the exhaustion requirement; “Futility” exception

[This appeal was from the ED-MI.] In this putative class action, the court reversed the district court’s denial of defendant-Hamtramck school district’s motion to dismiss based on plaintiffs’ failure to exhaust the IDEA’s administrative remedies because without a failed due-process hearing, there is no cause of action under the IDEA. Plaintiffs are the parents of children with special needs who contend that the school district violated their children’s “‘right to receive a free and appropriate public education’ under the IDEA.” They turned to defendant-Michigan Department of Education, which put a corrective-action plan in place. None of the parents engaged in the IDEA’s “due process complaint process.” Instead, they sued the school district, the county education agency, and the Department under the IDEA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and Michigan law. They also sought injunctions under all the federal statutes, requesting “‘corrective measures’” and a special monitor. Defendants argued that plaintiffs failed to exhaust the IDEA’s administrative remedies where they did not request a due process hearing. The district court ruled that “the exhaustion requirement does not apply to ‘systemic’ failures by a school district—such as the inadequate resources and staffing alleged here—to comply with the IDEA.” The court disagreed, holding that the “existence of a due process hearing ‘decision’ is . . . the necessary preamble of a lawsuit brought under the IDEA. Without the injury created by a failed due process hearing, no cause of action under the IDEA exists.” Further, none of the few exceptions to the general rule existed in this case. No one claimed “the school district refused to provide a due process hearing for the parents. The parents do not deny that the IDEA claim is the crux of this lawsuit. And [they] seek injunctive relief in this case, a form of relief that the IDEA provides.” The court found that nothing in the text of the IDEA supported the proposed “sweeping ‘systemic violations’ exception—or for that matter class action exception—to the due process hearing requirement.” It also concluded its precedent did not support application of a “‘futility’ exception here.”