## Facts

- Bechtel (plaintiff) was a student preparing to attend Emmaus High School in the East Pennsylvania School District (district) (defendant).
- Bechtel had spina bifida and used a wheelchair for mobility.
- Bechtel attempted to use several school facilities for his own purposes and to attend his sister’s school events, and many facilities were not wheelchair accessible or usable.
- Bechtel complained to the district about the school’s lack of accommodations for disabled students.
- Separately, the district began renovating the school and met with an architect about renovation plans.
- The architect advised the district about legal accessibility requirements and told the district that accessibility changes would be relatively inexpensive.
- The district refused to make accessibility renovations.
- Bechtel sued the district in federal court, alleging discrimination under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and a Pennsylvania state-law accessibility claim.
- The district moved to dismiss, arguing that Bechtel had to exhaust administrative remedies before suing under both the ADA and Pennsylvania law.

## Issues

1. Must a plaintiff exhaust Pennsylvania administrative remedies (including filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry) before bringing a Pennsylvania accessibility claim against a school district in court?
2. Must a plaintiff exhaust administrative remedies before filing a Title II ADA action challenging physical inaccessibility at a public high school?

## Decision

- The court dismissed Bechtel’s Pennsylvania state-law claim because Pennsylvania law required Bechtel to first pursue relief through the Department of Labor and Industry before commencing a civil action.
- The court addressed the district’s exhaustion argument as to Bechtel’s Title II ADA claim and allowed the ADA claim to proceed without requiring prior administrative exhaustion.

## Legal Principles

- When a state statutory scheme assigns initial enforcement of accessibility requirements to a state agency, a plaintiff must first pursue that administrative process before filing a civil action under the state law.
- Title II of the ADA provides a federal cause of action against public entities for disability-based exclusion or denial of access to public services, programs, or activities, and it is not conditioned on completing an administrative complaint process as a prerequisite to suit in federal court.

## Conclusion

A wheelchair-using student alleged that a public high school’s facilities were not accessible and that the school district refused to include accessibility work during renovations despite being advised it would be inexpensive; the federal court dismissed the Pennsylvania accessibility claim for failure to first file with the state agency, but permitted the Title II ADA claim to go forward without administrative exhaustion.


Bechtel v. East Pennsylvania School District, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1327, 3 A.D. Cases (BNA) 200 (1994)