Now, wait a minute, employment lawyers – I didn’t say the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. We’ll get to that one another time. This post is about the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. § 6101 et seq.), which is a little different. Here is the quick and dirty:

• Who does it apply to?: All programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance (e.g., colleges and universities).
• Who does it protect?: Applicants and participants in programs and activities receiving federal funding assistance.
• What does it do?: It prohibits age discrimination in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance, unless the program, by law, requires that age be considered. That is, a program can reasonably take age into account as a factor necessary to the normal operation or achievement of any statutory objective (e.g., providing special benefits to children or the elderly), or if the differentiation is based on reasonable factors other than age.
• Who enforces it?: U.S. Department of Labor (Civil Rights Center)
• Reporting deadlines: None.
• Document retention requirements: None.

On its face, the statute does not protect individuals of a particular age like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act does. I suspect that the intent here was to prevent colleges and universities from, for example, applying a blanket prohibition against admitting students over a certain age. However, there is language in the statute that would allow a program or activity to consider age if it is “necessary to the normal operation or achievement of a statutory objective.” I’m curious to see how this language is applied in different contexts in higher education. Stay tuned…