## Facts

- Christopher L. Falcone, a medical student with documented learning disabilities, enrolled at the University of Minnesota Medical School and disclosed his disability to the school’s disability-services office.
- The school provided accommodations during the classroom phase, including extra time on exams, flexible deadlines, tutoring, a private testing room, and other supports.
- Despite accommodations, Falcone failed multiple pre-clinical courses, shifted to a part-time schedule, and was repeatedly warned that additional failures could lead to dismissal.
- After completing the classroom requirements (with failures and remediation), Falcone entered the clinical-rotation phase.
- Falcone failed three clinical clerkships (Family Practice initially, then Internal Medicine, and then Emergency Medicine); he was allowed to repeat Family Practice with accommodations and passed on the second attempt.
- Clinical faculty and the academic committee consistently identified deficiencies in Falcone’s clinical reasoning, including difficulty synthesizing clinical data, organizing and prioritizing patient information, developing differential diagnoses, and making timely clinical decisions.
- During clinical rotations, the school provided additional accommodations (e.g., extra time for certain tasks, scheduled breaks, and regular feedback meetings), and permitted remediation and policy exceptions.
- After the third clinical-course failure, the Committee on Student Scholastic Standing voted to dismiss Falcone for failure to meet essential clinical requirements despite accommodations.

## Issues

1. Whether Falcone was “otherwise qualified” to remain in the medical program with reasonable accommodations under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
2. Whether Falcone was dismissed “solely by reason of” his disability, as required for § 504 liability.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the University.
- Falcone failed to raise a triable issue that he was otherwise qualified to meet essential clinical requirements with reasonable accommodations.
- Falcone failed to show he was dismissed solely because of disability; the record supported dismissal based on documented academic and professional performance deficiencies.
- The court rejected Falcone’s claim that alleged bad faith or inadequate implementation of a “feedback” accommodation created an inference of discriminatory causation.

## Legal Principles

- A § 504 plaintiff must show: (1) disability; (2) exclusion from, denial of benefits of, or discrimination in a federally funded program; and (3) exclusion “solely” because of disability.
- An individual is not “otherwise qualified” if, even with reasonable accommodations, the individual cannot meet essential academic and professional requirements of the program.
- Courts give substantial deference to good-faith academic judgments about essential program standards and student competence, particularly in professional and clinical training.
- § 504 requires reasonable accommodations, not accommodations that fundamentally alter academic standards or the nature of the program, and not guaranteed academic success.
- Disagreement with academic evaluations or remediation choices does not establish discriminatory motive absent evidence of bad faith or pretext.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the medical school’s dismissal decision because the undisputed record showed repeated failures to meet essential clinical competencies despite extensive accommodations, and because the dismissal was grounded in academic performance rather than action taken solely due to disability.


Falcone v. Univ. of Minn., 388 F.3d 656 (8th Cir. 2004)