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SERVICE ANIMALS and the LAW Christine Platter Disability Support Services Coordinator AMERICANS with DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)

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SERVICE ANIMALS and the LAW Christine Platter Disability Support Services Coordinator AMERICANS with DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) SERVICE ANIMALS AND THE LAW Christine Platter Disability Support Services Coordinator AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) • Title I- Employment • Title II- State and Local Governments • Title III- Public Accommodations • Title IV- Telecommunications • Title V- Miscellaneous provisions. • Service and Therapy animals are treated differently under different titles. CURRENT STANDARDS • The Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title II (State and local government services) and title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010, in the Federal Register. These requirements, or rules, clarify and refine issues that have arisen over the past 20 years and contain new, and updated, requirements, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards). WHAT IS A SERVICE ANIMAL? • Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. • Examples of such work or tasks 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 (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide 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 ADA. NOT A SERVICE ANIMAL • Under the new regulations, the definition of service animal now includes a specific list of animals that are excluded, even if they are service animals under the old laws. • These include; wild animals, including non-human primates born in captivity, reptiles, rabbits, farm animals, including any breed of horse, pony, miniature horse, pigs, goats, ferrets, amphibians, and rodents. APPROPRIATE SERVICE ANIMALS NON-APPROPRIATE SERVICE ANIMALS WHAT IS A THERAPY ANIMAL? • Currently there is no legal definition, under the ADA, for a therapy, comfort, or emotional support animal. • These animals are not covered by the ADA because they do not meet the definition of a service animal. • These animals are covered under current housing laws. ADA GUIDANCE • “animals whose sole function is to provide emotional support, comfort, therapy, companionship, therapeutic benefits, or promote emotional well- being are NOT service animals.” PSYCHIATRIC SERVICE ANIMALS • Because of the ADA requirement that animals must be able to “do work or preform tasks,” in most cases, animals that assist individuals with psychiatric disabilities were considered to be comfort animals. • This is no longer the case. The new ADA regulations recognize that there are and will continue to be “psychiatric service animals.” • These animals perform a specific task related to the needs of an individual with a psychiatric disability. TASKS • The new ADA regulations discuss psychiatric service animals that can be trained to perform specific tasks for individuals with disabilities, including the detection of the onset of a psychiatric episode and/or lessen their effects. • Other examples of tasks that might be preformed by a psychiatric service animal include reminding a person to take medications, turning on lights or preforming safety checks for persons diagnosed with PTSD, interrupting self-mutilation for individuals who have dissociative identity disorders, and keep disoriented persons from danger. WHY THE VARYING CLASSIFICATIONS • In general, service animals have protections under the ADA, but comfort animals do NOT. • The new ADA regulations, do recognize that the exclusion of comfort animals is specifically for the non-employment provisions of the ADA. • Such animals might be considered in employment settings, differently than in educational or environmental settings. HOW DO I KNOW IT IS A SERVICE ANIMAL • A service animal is not required to wear a special collar, tags or harness. • A service animal is not required to have papers certifying training. • So if it isn’t obvious…. WHAT YOU CAN ASK • Is this a service animal required for a disability? • What specific skill or task does the animal preform for the individual? • You may NOT ask disability specific questions or request documentation of training. TITLE II & TITLE III • As a public institution we are guided under both Title II and Title III of the ADA. • Places of public accommodations may not exclude service animals from any area that is open to the public or a registered student. • Places funded through state and local governments, may not prohibit service animals from any program or service of the entity. CAMPUS HOUSING • The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was passed in 1968 to provide protection of discrimination. • In 1988, it was amended to expand protection to housing discrimination, including disability. • Therefore, landlords, condominium associations, and other housing providers are prohibited from discriminating against applicants due to disability. CAMPUS HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS • The FHA also mandates that housing providers make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services when necessary so an individual with a disability has an equal opportunity to housing. • The FHA mandates that all laws associated with service animals apply to the FHA as well; however, they go on to include coverage for therapy, comfort and/or emotional support animals. • This is the case even if; the is a “NO PETS” policy in effect. REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR FHA • Reasonable accommodations, according to the FHA can include: • Waiver of “no pets” policy. • Waiver of “pet fee.” • Waiver of a roommate policy. • Other policies as determined by the housing complex or FHA. SERVICE ANIMALS • Under the ADA, 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. UNRULY SERVICE ANIMAL • If a service animal barks, growls, jumps on people or misbehaves in ways that indicate fear of threat, or observably untrained; • You must give the handler time to control the animal. • If the animal is not controllable the handler can be asked to leave. • If the animal is a distraction and continues to be a distraction after the handler has had time to make changes; the handler and animal can be excused from the class. • Continual problems should be directed to the Disability Support Services office. WHEN TO REMOVE… • A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove his service animal from the premises unless: 1. the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it or 2. the dog is not housebroken. When there is a legitimate reason to ask that a service animal be removed, staff must offer the person with the disability the opportunity to obtain goods or services without the animal’s presence. SEVERE ALLERGY • If a student complains of severe allergy to the service animal, the student should be assisted to move to another area of the classroom, change class sections, or complete assignments in another format. • The handler and service animal must not be dismissed due to allergy of another student or faculty member. DSS SERVICE ANIMAL POLICY • http://www.jeffco.edu/dss/current-students#.V9hDU010wdU EXAMPLE OF A SERVICE DOG • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b8_-C4BB4g QUESTIONS.
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