FILE:  IDDFB

 

SERVICE ANIMALS IN SCHOOLS

 

 

The Beauregard Parish School System acknowledges its responsibilities to permit students and/or other individual with disabilities to participate in and benefit from School Board services, programs and activities, and to promote the nondiscrimination of individuals on the basis of disability.  Therefore the School Board shall permit the use of service animals by students and other individuals under appropriate circumstances.

 

A service animal is any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.  The School Board may make reasonable modifications to its practices and procedures, when determined on an individual basis, to permit the use of a miniature horse by an individual with a disability if the miniature horse has been trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of the individual with a disability.  Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, shall not be considered service animals.

 

The work or task a service animal has been trained to provide shall be directly related to the person’s disability.  Service animals’ tasks may include, but shall not be limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, assisting an individual during a seizure, alerting individuals to the presence of allergens, retrieving items such as medication or telephones, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility difficulties, and helping persons with psychiatric or neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.

 

Parents must submit a written request for the use of a service animal to the Superintendent or his/her designee.  This request must be made no less than ten (10) days prior to the proposed use of the service animal prior to bringing the service animal to school or a school function.

 

Individuals with disabilities shall be permitted to be accompanied by a service animal in all areas of the School Board’s buildings and facilities where the public participates in services, programs or activities, or where invitees are permitted to go.

 

If any service animal is excluded by the School Board, the School Board shall give the individual with a disability the opportunity to participate in the service, program, or activity without having the service animal on the premises.

 

REGULATIONS

 

  1. Special Provisions/Miniature Horses:  Requests to permit a miniature horse to accompany a student or adult with a disability in school buildings, in classrooms, or at school functions, shall be handled on a case-by-case basis, considering:

 

  1. The type, size, and weight of the miniature horse and whether the facility can accommodate these features.

  2. Whether the handler has sufficient control of the miniature horse.

  3. Whether the miniature horse is housebroken.

  4. Whether the miniature horse’s presence in a specific facility compromises the legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operation of that facility.

 

  1. Removal of a Service Animal:  A school administrator may ask an individual with a disability or his/her parents to remove a service animal from a school building, a classroom, or from a school function, if any one of the following circumstances occurs:

 

  1. The animal is out of control and the animal's handler does not take effective action to control it.

  2. The animal is not housebroken.

  3. The animal's presence would "fundamentally alter" the nature of the service, program, or activity.

 

  1. A service animal shall be required to have a harness, leash, or other tether, unless either the handler is unable because of a disability to use a harness, leash, or other tether, or the use of a harness, leash, or other tether would interfere with the service animal's safe, effective performance of work, or tasks, in which case the service animal must be otherwise under the handler's control.

  2. Students with service animals shall be expected to care and supervise their animals.  The School Board shall not be responsible for the care or supervision of any service animal.  In the case of a young child or a student with disabilities who is unable to care for or supervise his/her service animal, the parent shall be responsible for providing care and supervision of the animal.  Issues related to the care and supervision of service animals shall be addressed on a case-by-case basis in the discretion of the building administrator.

  3. Service animals shall be clean and well-groomed, so as to minimize offensive odors, shedding and dander, and shall be free of fleas and ticks.  The School Board reserves the right to require proof that all service animals have been vaccinated against rabies by a licensed veterinarian in accordance with State law and administrative regulations promulgated by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

  4. Owners of service animals shall be solely responsible for any harm, damage, or injury caused by the service animal to students, staff, visitors, and/or property.

 

New policy:  July 9, 2015

Recoded from IDDFA:  October 10, 2019 

 

 

Ref:    42 USC 12101 et seq. (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990)

28 CFR Part 35 (Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services)

Board minutes, 7-9-15, 10-10-19

 

Beauregard Parish School Board