I’m starting college soon and one of the things I’ve been stressing about is leaving my ESA behind. I’ll most likely be living in student housing, so I wasn’t sure if ESAs are allowed in dorms or if every college has completely different rules.
I started looking into the accommodation process and realized I needed an actual evaluation rather than just some kind of registration or certificate. I ended up speaking with My ESA Therapist, and they helped me understand what I needed to do and what documentation I should have before contacting the housing office.
I’m still waiting to hear back from my college, but at least now I feel like I’m approaching it the right way instead of assuming my ESA would automatically be allowed. If anyone else has gone through this with college housing, I’d be interested to hear how your school handled it.
You can’t just show up with your ESA. I’m glad you understand that and are taking the appropriate steps.
I expect you would need to get approval for an ESA from the Office of Disability Services (which would require an evaluation done in the last 3 years from a licensed professional). The Housing Office would also likely get involved. I would like to think that people living your room or close to your room would be consulted to be sure there are no allergy issues, etc.
I know someone who was allowed to bring their emotional support animal to college with them. The needed to get permission from the university, and I am pretty sure that the university got approval from the person or people who were sharing a small suite with them (for example they would need to be asked about allergies). My guess is that they probably needed documentation from their therapist, but I do not really know for sure. They definitely did ask well in advance – even before they had decided which university to attend.
I would expect that each college or university would need to figure this out on a case by case basis.
In my opinion, you will need to work with the disability office to get a room accommodation…like a single…because not everyone wants to live with a pet in their bedroom.
Is this a quiet animal like a rabbit, or is it more like a dog that will howl or otherwise make noise when you aren’t there? Or do you plan to take the ESA to classes with you (which would be an additional accommodation done through the disability office).
Are you able to get to your college without flying? IIRC, most (if not all) airlines will no longer accommodate ESAs in the cabin even if you pay for an extra seat. It’s service animals only.
I hope you can work this out with the disability office at your college…and classes and move in are likely very soon. Good that you have a specialist to help guide you.
There was a student on this forum a few years ago, and she elected to attend a college near enough to her home, so she could see her ESA on a very regular basis.
My husband has had issues with allergies to pet dander. If you have other students near you, that are allergic to your emotional support animal, you won’t know that in advance, and neither will the professor.
What did your therapist say about this? Is there a future plan to diminish your continuing need for emotional support? Is it getting better or worse in times of stress for both of you?
Unfortunately, our pet friends are “mortal”. Have you made accommodations for your emotional support animal through a vet for illness?
Edited to add;I had a patient who was legally blind and had a very well-trained labrador. The patient was taking a few classes at a time in order to accommodate the Labrador. The training took months, prior to classes starting, as both needed to practice the schedule.
Fortunately, the dog was exceptional! Additionally, because the person only took two classes at a time, it made it easier for everyone. The lab sat just inside the door of the class and knew when to come towards the student.
It takes a lot of time to train a service animal into a new routine especially one that may have to deal with thousands of people.
And I don’t have fur/dander allergies-- but DO have asthma triggered by various environmental things. I discovered that the clay pellets used in some kitty litter is a trigger; I cannot breathe in a home with animals using natural hay in a cage, etc.
OP–get moving on that phone call to disability services and the housing office!
At my D’s school ESA animals were not permitted in classrooms or dining halls and had to be capable of being alone in a dorm room without causing disruption. Only certified service dogs were permitted everywhere. All requests were handled by the office of disability.
If you’ve just started this process and you plan on beginning within the next week or two, I’m concerned that housing has already been structured.
Room assignments have already been disseminated.
If your support animal is a lizard or a snake or any kind of amphibian, there are a number of people that have phobias towards certain animals such that the housing office is going to have a nightmare of issues if you’re planning on attending this semester or quarter, asking for accommodations.
They’ll do it, but usually people plan in advance for special accommodated housing.
So you need to be aware that “beggars can’t be choosers” and may end up in a single, off-campus with transportation.
Service animals are completely a different category. I’ve worked with patients with service animals and they go through repeated trainings and in-services, when a new situation arises.
Every college has different rules and procedures, so it’s best to start the approval process early if you can. At this point, you might be able to start the process and arrange to bring the animal out after the next break, or when your parents come to visit. It might depend on what the animal is, and on what your roommate situation is.
My D just got permission to have an animal in her room for emotional support reasons. This is different than an emotional support animal, I think, which is usually more specific – my D doesn’t have a designated ESA but rather she chose a pet out of her many pets because it would be easiest to care for in a dorm, and having an animal eases her diagnosed mental health issues (this pet is a crested gecko, which is easier to transport and keep than the toads, the snakes, the turtles … she’s got a lot of pets). She did get permission, but it took much longer and required more paperwork/meetings/deliberation than she thought it would for a fairly unobtrusive pet.
Also consider what your ESA needs from their living situation. Dorm living can be quite stressful for animals, especially if they’re cooped up in a dorm room by themself for many hours a day. I have known a number of students who brought ESA’s into college housing and ended up with stressed animals that developed behavior problems. Whether you can get permission is a gating factor, but it shouldn’t be the only consideration.
The PERSON is certified to need an ESA pet, but the pet is not certified (other than the normal vaccinations or license that might be required by the city). Federal law only requires the animal to be allowed in housing and on public transportation (thus the former airline policy of allowing them in the plane cabin, but they made an amendment to that rule). The animals are not allowed in restaurants, grocery stores, theaters, malls, etc unless the owners of those places allow them. Often the pet used for emotional support is not a dog or miniature horse (allowed as a service animal) but cats, bunnies, fish, turtles and those can’t go in most places. The pets have no special training; some may be well trained but others not well behaved in public.
Often the college will assign a first floor dorm, or a specific dorm, to a student who brings an ESA to help with access to the exit or ease the process for cleaning the cages, little boxes, bring in food, etc. My daughter had one in her (high rise) dorm and she would have liked to share a room with the owner but wasn’t picked.