A local family, the McMahons, has been battling with the Kimball School District to allow their son to use his service dog in school, despite receiving a court ruling allowing their son to use his service dog.

State law allows for the use of service dogs for students with disabilities. The policy at local schools, including Becker and Big Lake Schools in the Patriot’s readership area, reflect this law, with both schools’ policies stating, “A ‘service animal’ is a dog (regardless of breed or size) or miniature horse that is individually trained to perform ‘work or tasks’ for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including an individual with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability.” (This quote was taken verbatim from the Becker Schools policy, but Big Lake Schools keep a very similarly-worded policy.)

The McMahons are from the St. Cloud area, and two of their children attended/are attending the Clearview Elementary School in Clearwater. Their son, Ian McMahon, is currently attending Kimball School District. Ian has been diagnosed with Autism, Syngap 1, and epilepsy among other diagnoses. Ian’s disabilities qualified him to get a service dog, and the McMahons contacted Can Do Canines out of New Hope, MN. The family applied for a service dog in 2018 and finally welcomed Dewey to their home in May of 2022. Dewey, a four year old yellow lab, is specially trained to help Ian and keep him safe. Ian can sometimes become dysregulated and Dewey will help him calm down. Ian has difficulty listening to safety instructions from his teachers and parents, and can “elope” or run away into a dangerous situation. Dewey is attached to Ian with a tether and this prevents Ian from running away. 

During the waiting period, Laura McMahon, Ian’s mother, kept Ian’s school updated on the progress of Ian getting a service dog. She started with Clearview Elementary School, where Ian attended at the time, and continued to update the Kimball School District when Ian began attending school there. Laura believed that she had a good working relationship with the school administration and that everyone was on the same page about Ian’s service dog.

However, when Dewey became part of the McMahon family and began assisting Ian in school, there were some growing pains. 

The Kimball School District stated that Dewey would need a handler since Ian could not be fully in charge of the animal himself. Ian is accompanied by a paraeducator in his classes, but the school maintained their staff member could not be the animal’s handler, as that was not their responsibility, which is not unusual policy (Big Lake Schools’ policy states, “School district personnel are not responsible for the care, supervision, or handling responsibilities of a service animal.”) 

So Laura McMahon began attending classes with her son to serve as the dog’s handler. Her tasks were limited, as Dewey is trained to respond to Ian’s behaviors in addition to verbal or physical cues. But there are a few tasks that a handler needs to perform, such as untethering Ian when he needs to use the bathroom or play at recess. 

Unfortunately, the McMahons began running into trouble with the school district. The school brought up problems they found with the animal, claiming one student had allergies to the dog. They asked Laura to destroy notes she took about her son’s behavior throughout the day, as staff felt they were being scrutinized, or that she was recording information about other students. 

Laura claims that administration encouraged staff to report issues with Dewey, and there were reports of behaviors such as Dewey standing up without a cue. Laura says the dog is very well trained to respond to Ian’s behaviors without a cue, and that he can tell when Ian needs help to calm down. 

The school tried to implement restraints against Laura and Dewey that interfered with Dewey’s performance. Eventually, the McMahons felt it necessary to bring the issue to court. The school and the McMahons debated in court whether Ian needed his service dog and whether the school should accommodate Ian and Dewey. This was the first case regarding service animals in schools to be litigated in Minnesota. 

The judge ruled in the McMahons’ favor in June of this year, with the summary of conclusions stating, “The Administrative Law Judge concludes that: (a) the Student requires the use of his Autism Assistance Dog to access a free appropriate public education; (b) the tasks of an AAD handler qualify as a “related service” under 34 C.F.R. § 300.34; (c) the IEP proposed by the District on February 16, 2023, is not appropriate to meet all of Student’s identified needs and provide him with a free appropriate public education; and (d) compensatory damages are not available under the IDEA.”

The McMahons were relieved to hear the ruling, and excited to get back into a normal routine for the new school year. The family set up a staff training session with school staff members to inform them about what Dewey does for Ian and the reasonable accommodations the family needs. But 15 minutes before this meeting, the McMahons were informed that the school district was filing to appeal the judge’s decision.

Laura McMahon states that Ian truly needs Dewey in order to receive a good education. During times Ian was at school without Dewey, he would have emotional outbursts that would result in him causing himself harm.

The family has already spent over $80,000 in legal fees, and Laura McMahon stipulated that the school district likely spent far more. 

“If you don’t want to be concerned about a disabled child, at least care about the tax money spent,” Laura said.

This reporter reached out to Kimball School District for comment, and they replied with the following: “Due to data privacy laws, the District cannot comment on any individual student’s disability or use of a service animal. When the District is informed that a student intends to have a service animal at school, the District follows its Board-approved policy on service animals. Such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis considering the facts relevant to an individual student.”

A link to the school district’s service animal policy was also provided, which can be found at TinyURL.com/KimballServiceAnimalPolicy.

The McMahons reached out to the Patriot because they felt the need to let the public know how their local district was treating them and their son.