(THREE RIVERS) – The Three Rivers School District has approved a program that will help their students and their staff.

During a recent meeting, the Three Rivers Board of Education voted unanimously to start a therapy/facility dog program. The plan calls for a dog to first be brought to Three Rivers High School and then possibly have other dogs in the different schools around the district. The District is working with the group Paws With A Cause to implement the program, which would help with social and emotional support for both Three Rivers students and school staff.

Three Rivers High School Principal Carrie Balk presented the idea to the Board of Education, saying the school district will have to come up with a policy for the program and then find the dogs. The cost to the district would be approximately $6,000 per dog, and they would be owned by the district. Balk says she is looking for donations and grants to help pay for the dog.

It’s not known when a dog will be available. Balk says it could be anywhere from the second semester of the current school year or maybe in a year.

Balk says this idea came to her because of a comfort dog that has been doing training in the Three Rivers Schools since the beginning of the school year. The dog will be in the school district until February. Balk says she’s seen the way students have responded to the dog and have said they are sad it will be leaving. That made her think about having a dog for Three Rivers Schools.