53G-9-211. Therapy animal handling -- Policy.
(1) As used in this section: "Animal-assisted intervention" means an intervention designed to promote improvement in an individual's physical, social, emotional, or cognitive functioning through interactions with a specially trained animal. "Local education agency" means a school district or charter school. "Therapy animal" means an animal that: provides affection and comfort to an individual for emotional support; is accompanied by a therapy animal handler; and is trained to provide animal-assisted intervention. "Therapy animal" does not include a service animal or support animal as those terms are defined in Section. 26B-6-801 "Therapy animal handler" means an individual who is trained to handle a therapy animal for animal-assisted interventions.
(2) If a school within a local education agency provides animal-assisted interventions through therapy animals, the local education agency shall adopt a policy for proper handling of a therapy animal on school grounds. The policy described in Subsectionshall include: (2)(a) local or national certification or registration requirements for a therapy animal and therapy animal handler; guidelines for when a therapy animal and therapy animal handler are allowed on school grounds; notice requirements for parents, students, and school faculty and staff regarding the use of a therapy animal on school grounds; and guidelines to prevent students and staff who have an animal allergy or are uncomfortable around animals from interacting with a therapy animal on school grounds.
(3) This section does not require a school to allow the use of a therapy animal.