Harding High School is getting emotional support dogs? Unfortunately, no.
The initial plan was to get emotional support dogs in order to ease the stress surrounded by school, especially after COVID. However, due to the large expenses to get the dogs, the school is unable to do so.
There is also an extensive board policy update and a great deal of training and approvals from the school board that needs to happen before Harding can get one. So, as of now, a therapy dog for HHS is looking like a long-term goal.
There are very few schools in the Ohio area that have therapy dogs except for certain occasions. However, the few times they have been introduced in schools, the results were more than positive.
For example, North Olmsted High School found that the students that interacted with the dogs felt almost immediate relief and lower anxiety.
Although it would be cool to have a support dog, the logistics of doing so must be in place first.
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