The William S. Hart Union High School District board is considering a change for the district’s policy on animals at school, primarily as it applies to service animals in training.    The policy has allowed district employees or students to bring in animals for instructional purposes with th e permission of the principal or designee.  The animal must be appropriately immunized, in good physical health, appropriate for instructional purposes and meet the age and maturity of the students, according to the board policy manual.   The policy was first adopted in 1997, and its most recent revision was in 2014.  “There was a definite increase in the number of requests, in the variety of requests that sites are receiving. So, I think it was time to look at the policy and doing necessary updates that we thought were appropriate,” said Vince Ferry, assistant superintendent of educational services.  Cherise Moore, president of the Hart district governing board, added that the board tries to keep its policies up to date and feels they should strive to keep them current, so they do not feel behind.   “We can take the opportunity to make sure they are relevant with what’s happening now on our campuses and our community, impacting our students and staff. So, this not being updated in 11 years is actually a significant amount of time for us to be looking at it again,” Moore said.  The policy change was introduced at the March 19 meeting for a first reading. However, there are no definite changes to policy yet since it needs to go through its second reading before receiving board approval, according to Moore.  “I think the goal here was adding some clarification to the policy and requests for service animals,” Moore added.  Some proposed changes in the regulation include a new provision that district employees who are authorized to train service animals may not bring service animals in training to work – they must devote their full time and attention to the job during working hours, according to the proposed policy update.  Other proposed changes include: the owner/handler is responsible for the care and conduct of the service animal including feeding, using the restroom, veterinary care and grooming; and, the superintendent or designee cannot ask about the nature or extent of the person’s disability or require documentation and cannot ask for proof that the animal has been trained, certified or licensed as a service animal.  The board’s next scheduled meeting is April 16, though it has not been announced whether the proposed update will be on the agenda for that meeting.  The post Hart district board discusses change in ‘animals at school’ policy  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less