I have some exciting news to share: Our Speech Pathologist, Jennifer Mitchell, has the opportunity to bring a highly trained facility dog into her classroom to work with students.
Our Speech Pathologist, has applied for a through Canine Companions, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs and ongoing support, free of charge. Canine Companion’s facility dogs are expertly trained to work in education settings. They are trained to perform service dog commands, including picking up items, opening doors and providing calming pressure across the client’s lap or body. Specifically, [SP] would engage her Canine Companion to perform classroom tasks like accepting care from students to target specific verbs such as brush, pet, or walk; wear costumes for students to describe and address articulation and language targets; and offer deep pressure to students who have sensory struggles.
Before we welcome our Canine Companion to the classroom, we must ask whether your child has any allergies, asthma, or other health condition that may be affected by having a dog in the classroom. If so, please fill out the form below and return it to my office by DATE (TBD).
CANINE COMPANION NOTIFICATION FORM
Parent/guardian name:
Child’s name:
Does your child have an allergy, asthma, or other health condition that may be affected by having a dog in the classroom? If so, please describe the allergy, asthma, or health condition below:
I recommend that you check with SMCSIG to ensure that an injury caused by this dog (no matter how unlikely!) is covered by your insurance. I’m fairly confident that your insurance covers this kind of thing, because other districts are covered under similar circumstances, but you should double check to be sure.
According to your AR 6163.2: Animals At School, before the Canine Companion joins the classroom, you’ll need to provide written notice to all parents/guardians of students in the affected class, and ask them to verify whether their child has any known allergies, asthma, or other health condition that may be affected by having a dog in the classroom.
After notifying the parents and receiving any responses, you will also need to give the speech pathologist written permission to bring the dog to school. It can be an email or a letter, but either way it should include the following: “You are responsible for the care and conduct of the Canine Companion, including the cleanliness of the dog, at all times while on school property or at school-sponsored programs and/or activities to protect the health and safety of others. The District has the right to revoke this permission immediately, at any time, for any reason or no reason.”