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To access the full College Policy on Animals on Campus, please click the link below:

College Policy on Animals on Campus

The College's Policy for Animals on Campus applies to assistance animals that may be used by individuals with disabilities at the College.  "Assistance animal" is an umbrella term that refers to both service animals and emotional support animals, as further defined below.  An assistance animal is an animal that either (1) works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability; or (2) provides emotional or other type of support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability.

Service Animal

A "Service Animal" is defined as any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability.  Other animals do not qualify as service animals. (In some limited circumstances which generally are not applicable to Curry's campus, a miniature horse may be permitted as a service animal.) Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, guiding an individual who is blind or has low vision with navigation, alerting an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds, and alerting and protecting an individual during a seizure. The work or task a service animal has been trained to provide must be directly related to the functional limitations of the person's disability.  Animals whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals.

Examples of types of service animals include: 

• Guide dog: A dog that is trained to serve as a travel tool for individuals who are blind or have low vision.
• Hearing dog: A dog that has been trained to alert deaf persons or those with significant hearing loss, to sounds such as knocks on doors, fire alarms, phone ringing, etc.
• Assistance dog: A dog that has been trained to assist a person with a mobility or health impairment.  Types of duties the dog may perform include carrying, fetching, opening doors, ringing doorbells, activating elevator buttons, steadying a person while walking, assisting a person to get up after a fall, etc.
• Sig (signal) dog: A dog trained to assist a person with autism.  The dog makes a person aware of movements, which may appear distracting to others and are common to those with autism.  A person with autism may also have deficits in sensory input and may need service animals to provide similar assistance as is provided to a person who is blind or deaf.
• Seizure response dog: A dog trained to assist persons with seizure disorders.  The method by which the dog serves varies depending on the individual's needs.  Some dogs are able to predict seizures and provide advanced warning. 
• Other types of service animals: The above is not an exhaustive listing.  The College will allow service animals as permitted by applicable law.  

Emotional Support Animal

"Emotional Support Animals" (or "ESAs") is a category of animals that may work, provide assistance, or perform physical tasks, for an individual with a disability and/or provide necessary emotional support to an individual with a mental or psychiatric disability that alleviates one or more identified symptoms of an individual's disability, but which are not considered Service Animals under this Policy or relevant federal or state laws and regulations.  Some Emotional Support Animals are professionally trained, but in other cases ESAs provide the necessary support to individuals with disabilities without any formal training or certification.  Dogs and cats are commonly used as Emotional Support Animals, but any animal may serve a person with a disability as an ESA.

The question in determining if an Emotional Support Animal will be allowed in College housing is whether or not the ESA is necessary because of the individual's disability to afford the individual an equal opportunity to use and enjoy College housing and its presence in College housing is reasonable.  However, even if the individual with a disability establishes necessity for an Emotional Support Animal and it is allowed in College housing, an ESA is not permitted in other areas of the College (e.g. dining facilities, libraries, academic buildings, athletic building and facilities, classrooms, labs, individual centers, etc.).

The process for requesting and approving an assistance animal is listed below.

1. Schedule an appointment with Accessibility Services to discuss the specific nature of your request via email at accessibilityservices@curry.edu or via phone at (617) 333-2385

2. Have a licensed medical provider with whom you have discussed utilizing an assistance animal as part of a treatment plan fill out the Emotional Support Animal Provider Form 

3. Accessibility Services will collaborate with other offices in determining the holistic appropriateness of the request. A decision will be sent in writing  to the student and will be communicated to Residence Life and Housing by Accessibility Services.

4. Residence Life and Housing will make reasonable efforts to notify the other residents in the hall where the assistance animal will be located. The notice will be limited to information about the animal's presence as an accommodation for a documented disability, but will not disclose the student's disability.

In the case of a Service Animal, whent he need is not readiliy apparent, the College may request additional documentation in support of the request for the purpose of determining whether an animal qualifies as a service animal, namely:

1. that the service animal is required due to the functional limitations of the requesting individual's disability, and
2. what work or tasks the service animal has been trained to perform for the benefit of the requesting individual.

In the case of an Emotional Support Animal, students should complete the Emotional Support Animal Application and have a Licensed Mental Health Provider complete the medical documentation.  Both forms are linked below.  Once complete they can be returned to accessibilityservices@curry.edu 

Application for an Emotional Support Animal

Medical Documentation Form for an Emotional Support Animal

Please note that registration of an ESA with and/or certification by an external accrediting organization is neither recognized nor required for approval of a request.

Any necessary documentation must be dated within the last 12 months.