[Nyagdu] Committee Denies Use of Dog

Tue Sep 18 17:30:13 UTC 2012

Good afternoon all:
This was posted on my grad list with the Guide Dog Foundation, is this falling on that fine line, or is the dog a service animal, and was asked to ask.
Cheryl
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/sep/17/george-west-isd-committee-denies-use-of-dog-to/ 

GEORGE WEST — A George West Independent School District committee on Monday denied a 17-year-old high school senior use of a dog to help her on campus, her mother said.
The case potentially raises questions about how school districts should respond to changes in rules that govern service animals used by people with disabilities.
The meeting was private and school officials can't comment on Colleen Molohon's specific case, Superintendent Ty Sparks said in an email.
The girl's mother, Donna Osborn, said the dog, Chili, is a service dog that helps Molohon with specific tasks, and should be allowed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But she said the school committee determined Chili is nothing more than a "comfort animal" — a dog that helps a person feel better emotionally but does not have training to assist with specific tasks related to a disability.
Comfort animals aren't allowed under district policy.
In March 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice changed its regulations to clarify that comfort animals don't meet the definition of service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That means governmental entities, including school districts, aren't necessarily required by law to allow the animals on their premises.
But Osborn said Chili provides her daughter with much more than emotional support. She started using the dog, and the district allowed it, in ninth grade. But at the start of her junior year in 2011, in response to the new guidance from the Justice Department, the district changed its mind, Osborn said.
She believes the district is discriminating against her daughter because Chili meets the definition of a service dog.Molohon was diagnosed with autism, a developmental disorder that makes it harder for her to pick up on social cues. Osborn said Chili alerts Molohon when people are trying to communicate with her, and when she needs to communicate with others.
The dog also alerts Molohon to interrupt her from anything that is causing anxiety, a complication of autism, Osborn said.
And she provides physical support, too, helping Molohon with range-of-motion problems resulting from spinal surgery, Osborn said.
She believes the Admission, Review and Dismissal board, a district committee that determines individual education plans for students in the special education program, rejected Chili because she doesn't perform obvious tasks like those of other service animals, such as dogs that lead the blind.
"The school decided to list Chili as a comfort dog because they didn't seem to notice anything Chili does when she is working," Osborn said.
Brian East, an attorney for Disability Rights Texas, the federally designated advocacy group for people with disabilities in the state, said he couldn't discuss Molohon's specific case because he wasn't familiar with it. But he said even if Chili were only a comfort animal, it's possible the dog could still be required under federal special education law, which says schools must identify the support and services a student needs to get an appropriate education.
East said federal guidelines that came out with the 2011 changes made it clear that a dog would qualify as a service animal — not just a comfort animal — if it performs tasks to help with a psychiatric condition.
Osborn has been at odds with the district over what label should apply to Molohon. Her doctor says she has a form of autism; the district and a Texas Education Agency officer disagreed, saying she had an emotional disturbance. The officer found that, either way, Molohon had made substantial progress inside and outside the classroom.
Dustin Rynders, another Disability Rights Texas attorney, said that in general, a student's diagnosis doesn't matter. It's what tasks the dog performs that determine whether it must be allowed, and districts should realize that when they respond to the new federal guidelines.
"Districts should not misconstrue new amendments to suggest that people with emotional disabilities are not allowed to have a service animal," he said.
Osborn said Chili, an Australian cattle dog, hasn't drawn complaints from other students or parents. To the contrary, she said, Chili has helped Molohon reach out socially to other students, and drawn other students to Molohon, where before she was isolated. Osborn said Molohon missed 41 days of school without Chili her junior year, compared with 20 days her sophomore year with the dog.
"The worst thing Chili has ever done is pass gas in the classroom," Osborn said. "You can't tell me none of the football players have done that."
Osborn has initiated a federal civil rights complaint and said she was considering asking Disability Rights Texas for help. She said it may not help her daughter in time to affect her senior year, but could help others.
"The point is she's going to have to go through another year of suffering a debilitating anxiety or pain because she doesn't have the service dog," she said.
SERVICE ANIMAL RULES
A service animal is a dog trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.Examples include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with post-traumatic stress disorder during an anxiety attack. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work must be directly related to the person's disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act.Some state and local laws also define service animal more broadly than the ADA does.State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofits that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is normally allowed.Service animals must be harnessed, leashed or tethered, unless these devices interfere with the service animal's work or the individual's disability prevents using these devices. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal or other effective controls.When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.
A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove their service animal from the premises unless the dog is out of control or the dog is not housebroken.
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