D. C., By His Parents and Guardians, Trevor Chaplick and Vivian Chaplick, et al. v. Fairfax County School Board, et al.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) establishes a set of requirements designed to ensure that all children receive a free appropriate public education. The IDEA also guarantees an opportunity for “an impartial due process hearing” to address any issue related to a particular child’s education. Such due process hearings are individualized proceedings limited to addressing educational plans for particular disabled children; hearing officers are not empowered to resolve system-wide problems or flaws in the due process hearing system itself. In this case, Petitioners—children and parents in the Fairfax County, Virginia public school system— brought suit in district court to challenge the manner in which the state and local IDEA administrative process operates at every stage, asserting a host of pervasive and systemic defects. A divided panel of the Fourth Circuit ordered the suit dismissed. Notwithstanding a hearing officer’s inability to resolve such claims, the majority held that plaintiffs may not challenge systemic failures in the IDEA due process hearing system without first exhausting administrative remedies within that system itself. Dissenting, Judge Gregory explained that administrative exhaustion would be futile, noting that other courts of appeals, including the Second and Third Circuits, have held that exhaustion of administrative remedies is not required in such circumstances. The question presented is: Whether plaintiffs bringing a system-wide challenge to the IDEA due process hearing system may do so without first exhausting remedies in individualized administrative proceedings.