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Committee tightens animal-policy language, assigns staff responsibility for classroom animals
Summary
The committee revised service-animal and animals-in-schools policies (6163.32 and 5120-series), preferring the term 'school official' over 'board personnel,' restoring wording choices, standardizing handler/guardian language, and recommending that the staff member who brings an animal be responsible for its care and sanitation; the committee recommended waiving a second read and forwarding changes to the board.
The committee reviewed revisions to the district’s service-animal policy and its animals-in-schools policy, including separating regulation from policy. The chair and committee members proposed replacing repeated references to "board personnel" with "school official" for consistency across sections and restoring the phrasing "petted" where the draft had changed it to "pet."
Members also discussed standardizing references to handlers, parents and guardians—especially for young handlers—and ensuring the policy explicitly addresses miniature horses used as service animals. A committee member pressed for clarity about who is responsible for animal care, noting that approval language should specify what the animal is for and how it will be used in the classroom. The chair and others agreed the staff member who brings an animal should be responsible for care, safekeeping and sanitary maintenance, including cage cleaning, and the committee recommended the revised policy and regulation move to the board and that a second read be waived at the board level.
The committee did not conduct a final board vote; it forwarded edits and recommended board consideration.
