I-2 Guidelines for Service Animals on Campus

The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has implemented a formal administrative regulation that addresses service animals on campus. These guidelines serve to supplement that regulation and to also provide the Maricopa Colleges with direction in responding to service animals requests on campus. In addition, the term “service animal” and the guidelines outlined herein are based upon the provisions outlined in the U.S. Department of Justice’s revised regulations for implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Title II and Title III.

Service Animals

  1. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines service animals as those that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. This does not include animals for emotional support.
  2. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the service animal, or ask that the service animal demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.
  3. Allergies and fear of the service animal are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using service animals. When a person who is allergic to service animals’ dander and a person who uses a service animal must spend time in the same room or facility, for example, in a school classroom, they both should be accommodated by assigning them, if possible, to different locations within the room or different rooms in the facility.
  4. For information regarding Service Animals on MCCCD property, please see Administrative Regulation 3.9 Domesticated Animals on Campus.
  5. In instances when it is not obvious what service an animal actually provides, only limited inquiries are allowed and the inquiries should be vetted through those who are tasked to provide disability services on behalf of the college or the MCCCD. Staff may ask two questions:
    1. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
    2. What work or task has the service animal been trained to perform?

Service Animals-In-Training

  1. Any individual requesting to bring a service-animal-in-training to campus needs to request permission from College administration before the animal is brought to campus. The college administration will notify the College’s Police Department alerting them to this request.
  2.  If the individual is an employee at the District office, permission should be requested of Human Resources.
    1. In instances where requests are submitted for animals in training to be brought on site, no more than one service-animal-in-training is permitted on site per employee or student.

Emotional Support Animals

  1. Emotional support animals are generally not permitted on MCCCD campuses.            
  2. For more information regarding emotional support animals, please see 3.9 Domesticated Animals on Campus. 

Incidents Resulting in Injury    

  1. If an incident occurs that results in an animal-caused injury to students, employees or members of the public, the College’s Police Department and the District’s Enterprise Risk Management Department should be contacted in order to report all injuries (even minor ones) for documentation.
  2. Each college’s Police Department may choose to contact the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control Unit for further instruction.

AMENDED through the Administrative Regulation Process, November 5, 2019

ADOPTED through the Administrative Regulation approval process, May 29, 2012