Essay
The bill I am presenting today aims to allow special needs children access to service animals in school. The presence of a service dog or other animal can be highly beneficial to children with disabilities. As Meixner and Kotrschal found in their 2022 Review children with a vary of learning disabilities benefit the presence of a service dog, such as, heightened desires to attend school if a dog would to be present, improved accuracy during a memory test, and that children interacted more positively with their teacher with a dog present. Benefits were also noted in a 2019 study conducted by Rodriguez and O’Haire. This study found that individuals with service dogs had a better ability to deal with social interactions. As well as the demands that work and/or school put on them. However, service animals in school have their drawbacks. As the Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities organization, or the ECAD, points out that while service animals are trained to be unobtrusive their presence may cause other students to become distracted. They may also trigger allergies or phobias (Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities). Also as Renee Fong brings up in 2022 write up younger children or those with more severe disabilities may not be able to properly manage a service animal. However, it is, in my opinion, clear that benefits of a service dog far outweigh the cons. It is my belief that this bill should be passed.