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| Suzi service dog snow 065 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Last week a first grader with Autism was required to change schools by school district authorities in Ohio because she had a service dog. The special education teacher assigned to her classroom had a severe allergy to dogs. My money is on the probability of a lawsuit!
Here is a news article about the matter from the Columbus Dispatch.
Service Dogs remain a hot topic in Special Education Law. I have a special fondness for these amazing dogs and we have featured them on these pages many times. Here are some other posts we have done on this topic:
New Hot Button Issue: Service Dogs
New Hot Button Issue: Service Dogs - The Appeal
A battle of epic proportions, the ADA vs IDEA. Who will win?
ReplyDeleteNever bet on the result of a lawsuit! No comment.
DeleteJim
Nice work! Your post is an excellent example of why I keep coming back to read your excellent quality content that is forever updated.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that school districts continue to break the law when it comes to children with special needs. Laws are place to better help our students succeed but school districts continue to display carelessness with children with special needs
ReplyDeleteThe issue indicated about the teacher and the service dog is a predicament alright. I would think that we also have the right to protect the health of our teacher. However and I just hope that the school and the teacher is not just using the teacher's allergy as an excuse to get around in dealing with a service dog.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of service dogs seems to make schools very nervous. I personally advocate for the use of service dogs because I've seen and read about their benefits. There's nothing like seeing this in action.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is for sure- there is no easy answer. The parents have rights, the student has rights, the teacher has rights... and the other students have rights as well. I'm not sure how each of these rights can each be met with a single solution. It seems the student has the right to her service dog but the teacher has a right to not be involuntarily moved. The other students also have a right to keep their teacher (as a change would greatly impact them). I wonder if the only solution is an additional classroom and teacher (without allergies) on the same campus. I'm sure the district was looking at the cost of this option as a big problem. Very interesting.
U.K..
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
JG