UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ BENJAMIN STANLEY, │ Plaintiff-Appellant, │ > No. 23-1808 │ v. │ │ WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY; WARREN HILLS and │ KATIE DECAMP, individually and in their professional │ capacities, │ Defendants-Appellees. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan at Grand Rapids. No. 1:23-cv-00206—Jane M. Beckering, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: June 24, 2024

Before: CLAY, THAPAR, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Eric Delaporte, DELAPORTE LYNCH, PLLC, Mason, Michigan, for Appellant. Daniel B. Tukel, Joseph E. Richotte, BUTZEL LONG, P.C., Troy, Michigan, for Appellees. _________________

OPINION _________________

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. Benjamin Stanley worked for Western Michigan University (“WMU”) for about one month when WMU terminated his employment. Stanley then sued WMU and a few of its employees. He claimed that WMU and certain supervisors discriminated and retaliated against in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Stanley also brought a claim under Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act (“PWDCRA”), No. 23-1808 Stanley v. W. Mich. Univ. Page 2

as well as a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The district court dismissed Stanley’s federal claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction based on Eleventh Amendment immunity and dismissed his state-law claims for failure to comply with the Michigan Court of Claims Act’s notification statute. See Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.6431. The district court also denied leave for Stanley to amend his complaint. We affirm the district court’s dismissal of Stanley’s federal claims and the denial of Stanley’s motion for leave to amend his complaint, but we vacate the judgment in part and remand to the district court to dismiss Stanley’s federal and state-law claims without prejudice.

I.

WMU is a public university in Michigan. WMU employed Benjamin Stanley as a utility food worker in its dining hall for 31 days, from early October to mid-November 2020. Stanley claims he did not complete training for the job because “[p]artway through the training, the employee leading the training was called away for another task.” R. 1, PageID 2.

WMU terminated Stanley’s employment during his probationary period for excessive tardiness and failure to follow proper clocking-in procedures. Stanley has severe ADHD that he claims impacted his ability to timely clock in, such as by causing him to occasionally forget his swiping ID card. Stanley claims he was “disciplined for being late after having to wait for WMU staff to perform his required temperature check for COVID-19 purposes,” even though he was told he would not be disciplined following such occurrences. Id. at 3. Because Stanley sometimes forgot his ID card, he requested a reasonable accommodation—such as a punch card to be kept onsite—