For students with mental or physical disabilities, having a service animal on campus can help limit risks and ease the challenges that come with earning a college degree.
“It allows them to experience things that otherwise they might not be able to do,” such as accessing the dining hall or other facilities on campus or even being able to attend college at all, says Sarah Feyerherm, vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Washington College in Maryland. She says having a service animal allows a student “to be able to have a similar experience to any student who doesn’t need a service animal.”
Here’s what to expect if you’re thinking about bringing your service animal to college.
Service Animals vs. Emotional Support Animals
Service animals and emotional support animals are not interchangeable terms. Definitions vary, but the U.S. Department of Justice defines a service animal as a dog — and in some cases, a miniature horse — that is “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.” Service dogs can push buttons, pull wheelchairs, retrieve items, alert for low sugar levels, make others aware of health emergencies or guide someone with vision impairments, among other actions.
Training a service animal may differ by programs or per individual.
As part of Fetching Freedom, a service dog training club at Washington College, puppies stay and work with students on campus for a year — beginning at 8 weeks old — and learn basic obedience and skills, such as settling in crowded places. They then go to a low-security prison to continue their training, learning other skills like opening a refrigerator door, before working with an advanced trainer.
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Fetching Freedom partners with Fidos for Freedom, a nonprofit that connects service animals with residents of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
“You get to actually start to see them work with potential clients that they’re going to end up with,” says Skylar Fairbee, a junior and president of Fetching Freedom at Washington College. “Our previous dog, Max, he just came back from prison and every week we go to puppy class and we get to see him work with a different client and just really hone” his skills. “They don’t necessarily have specific trained tasks yet. They work with clients that work best with them.”
Compared to a typical pet, service animals’ behavior should be “neutral” and nonreactive to other animals and humans, she says.
On the other hand, emotional support animals, while often well-mannered, are not trained to carry out specific duties. Dogs, cats, rabbits and some rodents — like gerbils or hamsters — are common animals used for comfort. Undomesticated or exotic emotional support animals are typically not allowed on college campuses due to health risks.
The distinction between service animals and emotional support animals often causes confusion in cases of students with anxiety and depression, says Nancy Horton, associate director of the Mid-Atlantic Americans with Disabilities Act Center, a member of the ADA National Network.
“Emotional support animals help people with (anxiety or depression) just by being around,” she says. “But there are service animals that can be trained to actually perform tasks for people that have the same types of disabilities.”
For example, service animals can be trained to alert, do safety checks, interrupt behaviors or redirect people’s attention for those who have an anxiety disorder or post-traumatic stress condition.
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Service animals are allowed in classrooms, dining halls, residence halls and other campus buildings, while emotional support animals cannot go everywhere. Since emotional support animals are covered by the federal Fair Housing Act and not the ADA, they are just permitted in dorms and an owner must seek approval first.
“With emotional support animals, (schools) have the right as a housing provider to verify that there is actually a disability-related need,” says Christopher Sweet, technical assistant and outreach specialist at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University in New York. “Which would be something, say from a therapist or a mental health provider, to say this person needs this to live successfully.”
Rules for Having a Service Animal on Campus
According to the Justice Department, there are no breed restrictions and college staff may ask only limited questions about your service animal, including if the dog is a service animal required because of a disability and what work or task the dog has been trained to perform.
There’s no mandatory registration process for service animals on campus, experts say. However, students can voluntarily choose to register their service animal or provide identification. Vests are not required to be worn by the animal, but it’s up to the student.
While service dogs are allowed across campus, they must be leashed, harnessed or tethered unless the student’s disability prevents this. Entry into a building or area cannot be denied based on someone’s allergies or fears. However, a service animal can be removed if it is out of control or not housebroken, according to the Justice Department.
Generally, when you go into public places covered by the ADA or other laws, there may be dogs and you “have to be prepared to deal with that if you’re somebody who doesn’t use a service animal,” Horton says.
“The person who uses the service animal isn’t supposed to be burdened with all kinds of procedural hurdles to be able to do that,” she says. “It’s really the person with the disability who has rights, not the dog. The person has the right to be accompanied by the dog and then … be responsible for the supervision of the dog, the care of the dog and keeping it safe.”
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Should You Make Professors Aware of Your Service Animal?
Students are not obligated to discuss a service animal ahead of time with a professor; it’s a personal decision. However, it can be beneficial to provide some notice to professors, experts say.
For instance, some environments, like laboratories, can be unsafe for service animals and may require advanced preparation, such as getting appropriate protection.
Additionally, informing a professor before the first day of class can also eliminate common remarks, such as: “‘Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t allow pets in here,'” Horton says.
Some people who use service animals “recognize that particularly going into something like a classroom where it’s going to be the same people over and over, a couple days a week for months at a time, there could be someone in there who’s got a phobia of dogs and they may want to prepare ahead of time with the professor to be able to address that kind of a situation,” she says. “But there’s no obligation to do that.”
For students who want to preemptively disclose information about having a service dog, experts recommend using their institution’s disability services office as a resource.
“If you register with student disability services, you can have a conversation with them to let them know: ‘Hey, I have a service animal. What’s the process to make sure that I’m having a smooth transition to a professor’s classroom?'” Sweet says. “Parse out those questions and see how that would be best handled. Freshman year, your first day of class, you want a very smooth transition because you’re nervous as it is. So it would really be like any other accommodation request. And that’s what service animals are.”
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