While the litigation is far from over the Illinois Appellate Court upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of the family. This student is a rural school district in downstate Illinois should finally be able to go back to school and bring his service dog. This Illinois school district needs to make a few calls to schools in Portland, Oregon, where more districts are welcoming services dogs for children with autism because they are seeing real and demonstrable educational benefits.
In my own life, this summer we finally got a dog for our son. His name is Chili, who is part Mini Pincher and part Italian Greyhound. He does not go to school with him but he goes almost everywhere else with him. The benefits have been tremendous. He is happier than he has been in years. In public, people react more positively since he is not just the kid in the chair, rather is the cool kid in the chair with the cute dog. The dog also deters intrusive stranger who insist on touching his head and calling him "Buddy." Last summer he could hardly believe his luck when an attractive young women came up to him, and lavished all kinds of attention on the dog and indirectly on him because of Chili. It was his idea of teenaged heaven!