Service Animals and the ADA

The Department of Justice (DoJ), which interprets sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), issued in February 2020 “Frequently Asked Questions about Service Animals and the ADA,”  which reinforced the ADA regulations. Your K-12 school, college, or university should review the FAQs to ensure compliance.  

Some institutions do not follow DoJ directives, most notably by requiring students to register their service animals. 

The current ADA regulations defined “service animal” and changed what institutions can ask students and visitors about their animals. 

• Definition of service animal: Service animal means a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. These tasks include guiding a person who is blind, recognizing seizures, calming a person with post-traumatic stress disorder during an anxiety attack, or retrieving items. The work or task for which a dog is trained must directly relate to the person’s disability; in addition, dogs who provide only comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals for ADA purposes. The FAQs note that the ADA’s definition is separate from the broader definition of “assistance animal” under the Fair Housing Act (which may be relevant to allowing certain animals in campus housing) or the broader definition of “service animal” under the Air Carrier Access Act.
  
  Note: While the ADA definition of “service animals” is limited to dogs, a separate provision of the regulations requires entities subject to the law to “consider reasonable policy modifications for a miniature horse individually trained to perform disability-related work or tasks.” This consideration would involve evaluating factors such as the animal’s size and weight and the facility’s ability to accommodate it. 

• What institutions can ask: Limited inquiries are allowed only when it is not obvious what service the animal provides. Schools may ask: “Is the dog required because of a disability?” and “What work or task has the dog  been trained to perform?” 

Institutions 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 animal demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task. 

The FAQs include useful reminders for private businesses and nonprofit public accommodations, including educational institutions: 

• Under the ADA, schools must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas where they permit public access (such as cafeterias), but the FAQs note that it “may be appropriate” to exclude a service dog from areas where the animal’s presence could “compromise a sterile environment.”
• Schools only ask a person with a disability to remove their service animal from the premises in two circumstances: (1) the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control the animal or (2) the dog is not housebroken. 
• Neither allergies nor fear/dislike of dogs justifies denying access or refusing service to people using them as service animals. However, according to the FAQs, when a person who is allergic to dog dander and a person with a service dog must spend time in the same room (such as a classroom), the school should try to accommodate both people by assigning them to different locations in the room.  

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