CANINE CLASSMATES

It is important to point out that Canine Classmates is primarily an education program. During the 2023-2024 school year, our volunteers and small staff provided over 6,000 30-minute session to the students in the program. The Canine Classmates literacy program is designed to encourage and improve literacy and social skills for struggling and at-risk K through 5th grade students. We accomplish this by pairing mentors and trained, certified service dogs with students in a program that is positive, nurturing and motivational. The students participate in the one-on-one (or in small groups) literacy program for 30 minutes at the same time and on the same day each week with the same mentor to develop consistency. We work with the teachers and counselors to tailor our approach based on the needs of each child. Our continual evaluation enables us to quickly modify our approach when needed. Canine Classmates has developed a proven solution with an effective success rate based on school measurements. A majority of students in the Canine Classmates program are deemed at-risk and represent a diverse population of children with issues such as mobility handicaps, emotional issues, learning problems, special education needs, speech and language delays, autism, and those from economically disadvantaged homes. Behaviors in children who are autistic, nonverbal by choice, argumentative, emotionally disturbed, and with prior high truancy have been dramatically changed for the better due to interaction with the dogs and Canine Classmates mentors. Literacy is often the one single denominator to a student's success in school, society, and in the job market. National statistics show that students who aren't reading at grade level by the third grade are four times less likely to finish high school and two-thirds of students who struggle with reading by the fourth grade will run into trouble with the law. Approximately 85% of youth in the juvenile court system are considered to be functionally illiterate. Several of the schools have requested additional days next year. The goal of Canine Classmates is to help these students attain the reading skills and interpersonal skills they need to advance and succeed in later life.

Canine Classmates works with the McKenna Children's Museum. A mentor and service dogs visit the Museum for 2 to 3 hours on the 1st Saturday each month. The goal of the program is to encourage families to read together. We also try to educate children on service dogs and their benefits in education. We also discuss the proper way to approach strange pets. This is an all-volunteer program that makes contact with over 2,200 parents and children each year.