Cite as: 536 U. S. 273 (2002)
Stevens, J., dissenting
nology" characteristic of federal antidiscrimination statutes, such as "[n]o person . . . shall . . . be subjected to discrimination," ante, at 287. But the sort of rights-creating language idealized by the Court has never been present in our § 1983 cases; rather, such language ordinarily gives rise to an implied cause of action. See Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 690, n. 13 (1979). None of our four most recent cases involving whether a Spending Clause statute created rights enforceable under § 1983—Wright, Wilder, Suter, and Blessing—involved the sort of "no person shall" rights-creating language envisioned by the Court. And in two of those cases—Wright and Wilder—we concluded that individual rights enforceable under § 1983 existed. See n. 3, supra.
Although a "presumptively enforceable" right, ante, at 284, has been created by § 1232g(b), one final question remains. As our cases recognize, Congress can rebut the presumption of enforcement under § 1983 either "expressly, by forbidding recourse to § 1983 in the statute itself, or impliedly, by creating a comprehensive enforcement scheme that is incompatible with individual enforcement [actions]." Blessing, 520 U. S., at 341. FERPA has not explicitly foreclosed enforcement under § 1983. The only question, then, is whether the administrative enforcement mechanisms provided by the statute are "comprehensive" and "incompatible" with § 1983 actions. As the Court explains, ante, at 289, FERPA authorizes the establishment of an administrative enforcement framework, and the Secretary of Education has created the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) to "deal with violations" of the Act, 20 U. S. C. § 1232g(f). FPCO accepts complaints from the public concerning alleged FERPA violations and, if it so chooses, may follow up on such a complaint by informing institutions of the steps they must take to comply with FERPA, see 34 CFR §§ 99.63-99.67 (2001), and, in exceptional cases, by administrative adjudication against noncomplying institutions, see 20 U. S. C. § 1234. These ad-
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