{"id":14152,"date":"2015-11-19T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=13306"},"modified":"2016-03-29T14:57:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T18:57:58","slug":"feds-sue-ny-district-for-discrimination-violating-service-animal-requirements-of-ada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/feds-sue-ny-district-for-discrimination-violating-service-animal-requirements-of-ada\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Sue NY District for Discrimination &#038; Violating Service Animal Requirements of ADA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Feds%20Sue%20NY%20District%20for%20Discrimination%20%26%20Violating%20Service%20Animal%20Requirements%20of%20ADA\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong>\u201cIt is no longer acceptable \u2013 if ever it was \u2013 for a district to refuse reasonable modifications to a child who seeks to handle her own service dog &#8230; <\/strong>Certainly since passage of the American with Disabilities Act in 1990, such failure not only violates the dictates of conscience, it also violates the law\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On September 29 2015, the Department of Justice filed suit against the Gates-Chili Central School District for refusing to allow a third grader with disabilities to attend school with her service dog unless her parent provides a separate adult handler for the dog.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000; float: right; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/inhouse\/ada.devyn.heather.jenn.hannah.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"194\" \/><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Devyn&#8217;s Story<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In preschool, the district allowed Devyn to bring her dog, Hannah, to school and allowed school staff to help.<\/p>\n<p>But when Devyn entered Kindergarten, the district changed their policies and procedures, and would not allow Devyn to bring Hannah to school unless her parent provided a separate adult handler.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The child\u2019s 1:1 aide or other school staff were no longer allowed to help.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Jumping Through the Unlawful Hoop<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Devyn&#8217;s parents have paid a handler $1,400 a month (about $17,000 a year) to accompany Hannah and Devyn to school.<\/p>\n<p>The handler spends about 15 minutes a day \u201chandling\u201d Hannah.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">DOJ Orders School to Reverse Its Policy &amp; Pay Damages<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After a long, thorough investigation, the Department of Justice issued a letter of finding in April 2015.<\/p>\n<p>DOJ ordered the school district to reverse its policy and pay compensatory damages to the family for injuries they suffered because the district failed to comply with the ADA.<\/p>\n<p>Read:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complaint<\/li>\n<li>Letter of Findings<\/li>\n<li>article about legal fees<\/li>\n<li>details about the case<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ada.doj.suit.svc.animals.htm\"><strong>Feds Sue NY School District for Discrimination &amp; Violating Service Animal Requirements of ADA<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 by Pamela Darr Wright, MA, MSW &amp; Peter W.D. Wright, Esq.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ada.doj.suit.svc.animals.htm\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ada.doj.suit.svc.animals.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>2015 FAQs about Service Animals and DOJ Guidance<\/strong> in <\/span><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/can-the-school-refuse-to-allow-a-service-dog\/\">Can the School Refuse to Allow a Service Dog<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt is no longer acceptable \u2013 if ever it was \u2013 for a district to refuse reasonable modifications to a child who seeks to handle her own service dog &#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/feds-sue-ny-district-for-discrimination-violating-service-animal-requirements-of-ada\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,1363,1376],"tags":[1312,1306,1382],"class_list":["post-14152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accommodations-modifications","category-discrimination-section-504-adaa","category-parent-school-disagreement-disputes","tag-ada","tag-discrimination","tag-service-animals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15576,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14152\/revisions\/15576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}