Family, School Battle Over Autistic Boy's Dog

September 14, 2009 | By Amy Lieberman

Carter Kalbfleisch poses with his service dog, Corbin. Carter's family is now fighting for Corbin to be able to attend public school with the 5-year-old autistic boy. (ZT Pet News Photo Courtesy of Melissa Kalbfleisch)

Columbia, Ill. -- The Kalbfleisch family, of Columbia, Ill., had tried every remedy in the book to treat their son, Carter, 5, who was diagnosed as autistic when he was a toddler.

“We just kept on missing milestone after milestone,” Melissa Kalbfleisch, Carter’s mother, told Zootoo Pet News. “He wasn’t getting any better.”

The family had tried therapy and a special gluten-free diet -- which had the reverse effect and made Carter ill -- seemingly, nothing was working.

That is, until Corbin, a 1-year-old service dog, joined the family in mid-July. Since then, Carter’s tantrums have lessened and he has more comfortable in large, social places. He articulated his first words -- including commands directed at Corbin -- just last month.

It’s a classic tale of boy-meets-dog, but matters became more complicated when Carter’s public elementary school, Columbia Community School Unit 4, informed the Kalbfleischs in June that Corbin wasn’t welcome in class.

The family filed a law suit against the school district in July, based off of a state law that stipulates “service animals … trained to perform tasks for the benefit of a student with a disability shall be permitted to accompany the student at all school functions, whether in or outside the classroom.”

The office of Columbia School District Superintendent Ed Settles declined to comment on the case, citing pending litigation. Yet, Kalbfleisch said that the school claims it is unable to accommodate Corbin and wants to Carter to another school, one hour away.

The school district is arguing that the dog would “have a direct and negative impact on at least one other student [allergic to animals] who attends the early childhood program,” and that the school is “aware of multiple children with medical conditions which may be impacted by the presence of a dog at school,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The Kalbfleischs won a small victory last week, when the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon denied the district’s request to disregard a preliminary order by the Monroe County Circuit Court, which said the district must accommodate the dog.

However, this week, the district redirected Carter to a school around one-hour away from his home, noting that it would not be able to provide transportation, Kalbfleisch said. Carter will be starting at a new, co-op school aimed to serve students with disabilities this week. Corbin will be right alongside him.

“Corbin is the only dog we have trained who has been refused from a school,” Deanna Hall, communications director for Wilderwood Service Dogs told Zootoo Pet News. “We were very surprised that Carter and Corbin weren’t even given an opportunity to show how their partnership might work. We have seen so much success from other schools with service dogs present in the classroom, and were just shocked to see that this school wasn’t willing to learn from that.”

Wilderwood Service Dogs, based in Maryville, Tenn., trains between 10 to 20 service dogs a year, individualizing each dog’s conditioning to match the person he or she will be assisting. The Kalbfleischs first applied for a dog two years ago, and sent pictures of Carter, as well as voice recordings and samples of his clothing, so Corbin could recognize his owner before he even met him.

When Carter has a meltdown, Corbin knows to nudge him gently with his snout, or if necessary, to embrace him on the ground. Since Carter has Pica, a pattern of eating non-food materials, Corbin is adept at identifying and blocking mulch, stones, glass and other potentially dangerous items before the boy tries to consume them.

“They bonded instantly,” recalled Melissa Kalbfleisch of Carter and Corbin’s connection. “Carter is just so proud of him and Corbin helps in so many ways -- when Carter is in a rage, Corbin can get him into an embrace situation Carter just digs into his fur to calm himself down, and it is kind of a buddy system. It works.

“If Carter tries to run away -- I have a bad back and it is hard for me to chase after him -- Corbin can be told to go get him before he runs into the street, or something, and it is a huge help.”

Up until two months ago, Carter couldn’t go on local shopping trips with his family, given his propensity to break down into tears. This summer, Corbin, Carter and the rest of the family, including two other siblings, went to Six Flag’s Adventure Park, marking a new kind of excursion.

“Last year, we went to Six Flags and it was a horrendous experience -- this time, there was not one incident. They just walked through the whole park together and we stayed the whole day. And at the end of it, Carter was so tired, but he still walked with his dog back to the car, as proud as could be.”

Carter and Corbin were forced to spend a few days apart at the end of August, yielding less than desirable effects on the duo.

“Carter had to go to a sitter without his dog and it turned into a horrendous experience,” his mother explained. “When they got back together, they were kind of upset with each other, and just didn’t get it. It was hard to get them back in the swing of things. I think about how hard it would be if I were to separate them for a whole school day … It’s critical that they stay together.”

Kalbfleisch says she first notified Columbia Community School Unit 4 about their plans to get a service dog for Carter two years ago.

“When I first submitted the prescription to the school district, they told us everything was fine and that they didn’t have any problems, and if there were any kinds of issues we would address it at the start of the school year,” she said. “But as the date got closer, we continued to be basically ignored.”

The Kalbfleisch’s two other children still attend Columbia Community School Unit 4, but the ongoing legal battle with the district has drained on the family, both emotionally and financially. The family is now $30,000 in legal debt, in addition to the $10,000 they spent on Corbin. Wilderwood Service Dogs subsidized the rest of his training -- totaling to $14,000.

“I thought to myself, I have never heard my child say ‘Mama,’ and if there is a chance of that, it’s worth every penny. Yesterday he said it three times, and called it out when he was upset, which he has never done before,” she said.

“It’s just crazy, it’s awful what you sometimes have to do to fight for your children’s rights.”

Amy Lieberman is a Zootoo Pet News correspondent covering the New York region and can be reached at alieberman@zootoo.com.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.