• For an animal to qualify as an emotional support animal, the student must show a well-established relationship with animal; a minimum of three months.
• The student must notify the ADRC if the animal is no longer required or no longer resides on KSU property.

Please note that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's warning about online documentation: “Some websites sell certificates, registrations, and licensing documents for assistance animals to anyone who answers certain questions or participates in a short interview and pays a fee.” Under the Fair Housing Act, a housing provider may require reliable proof when an individual requesting a reasonable accommodation has a disability and a disability-related need for an accommodation that is not obvious or otherwise known. In HUD's experience, internet documentation alone is insufficient to consistently show that an individual has a non-observable disability or a disability-related requirement for an assistance animal.

Responsibilities and Considerations

ADRC Office:

• Is responsible for developing KSU specific procedures and facilitating the usage of service animals by students on campus.
• If other residents express concerns about the animal and attempts at mediation fail, the owner of the ESA will be given an alternate living space on campus and expected to relocate within a reasonable time frame.
• Will engage in an interactive process with the student and Residential Housing to review requests for ESAs on a case-by-case basis to determine if the applicant has a qualifying disability, if the animal is a reasonable accommodation to afford equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling in light of the individual's disability, and to determine an identifiable relationship between the disability and the assistance the animal provides.

KSU Community:

In compliance with the applicable laws, KSU's general policy prohibits the presence of any form of animal in campus accommodation. However, the institution is dedicated to making reasonable accommodations and carrying out its obligations under federal, state, and local laws and regulations. The university will review and handle requests for reasonable and necessary accommodations for an individual with a qualifying impairment in order to accommodate an ESA in university housing. No ESA are to be kept in residential housing at any time prior to receiving approval.

Other university facilities, such as libraries, classrooms, athletic facilities, labs, student centers, medical/dental clinics, and so on, as well as university-sponsored events, do not normally allow ESA use. ESAs must not be inherently dangerous to others, be non-aggressive, always under the owner's control (or well-behaved and appropriately contained when the owner is not there to supervise the animal, such as in university accommodation), and housebroken.

If a student's request for an ESA is approved, only ONE animal will be allowed unless a demonstrates the disability-related need for multiple animals. An accommodation may be deemed unreasonable if it places an undue financial or administrative burden on KSU, poses a significant and direct threat to personal or public safety, or represents a fundamental change in the nature of the service or program (see the "Requesting an Emotional Support Animal" section of this policy).