# ESA Letter in Connecticut: The Tag That Is Not Yours

> Connecticut hands out a free animal tag at the town clerk, caps deposits at two months, and in 2024 named emotional support animals in its statute book.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-20
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

**Summary:** Connecticut has no statute that grants emotional support animals housing rights by name, what it has is a general reasonable-accommodation duty at Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(a)(6)(C)(ii), a definition of disability at § 46a-64b(8) that is broader than the federal floor, and, since 1 July 2024, a section of its own code that names emotional support animals in its heading. Public Act 24-18 added § 46a-64d, which directs the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to publish materials on the differences between service animals, emotional support animals and therapy animals, and on "permissible methods under state and federal law for … a landlord … to determine whether an animal is a service animal, an emotional support animal or a therapy animal." The legislature treated the verification question as already answered by existing law and told its civil-rights agency to go explain it. Connecticut also caps security deposits at two months' rent (one month for a tenant aged 62 or older), under § 47a-21(b), and gives a tenant 300 days to file a discrimination complaint, far longer than most states.

## The 2024 act that said the quiet part

For most of its history Connecticut's statute book did not contain the
phrase "emotional support animal." Since 1 July 2024 it does, in a section
heading of its own.

Public Act 24-18 added Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64d, which directs the
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to publish links to educational
materials on three things: "the differences between service animals,
emotional support animals and therapy animals," the rights and
responsibilities attaching to each under state and federal law, and
"permissible methods under state and federal law for an owner of a place of
public accommodation, resort or amusement … or a landlord, to determine
whether an animal is a service animal, an emotional support animal or a
therapy animal."

Read it carefully and it gives a tenant nothing directly. It is a duty on an
agency, discharged by publishing a web page. But look at what it assumes.
The legislature did not commission a study into how landlords ought to
verify assistance animals, and it did not write a new verification standard.
It treated the question as **already answered by law that exists**, and
instructed the state's civil-rights agency to go and explain that law to
people who keep getting it wrong.

That is a fair summary of Connecticut's position generally: the rights are
old and general, the confusion is new and specific, and the state's response
was to name the confusion.

## Where the right actually lives

Section 46a-64c(a)(6)(C)(ii) is the operative sentence. For purposes of the
disability subdivision, discrimination includes "a refusal to make
reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services, when
such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity
to use and enjoy a dwelling."

A no-pets policy is a rule in "rules, policies, practices or services." The
federal regulation at 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) says almost the same thing.

Around that sentence, § 46a-64c(a)(6)(A) and (B) make it a discriminatory
housing practice to deny a dwelling to, or to discriminate in the terms and
conditions of a rental against, a renter because of a learning disability or
physical or mental disability, including a disability of a person who will
live in the dwelling after it is rented, or of "any person associated with"
the renter. The protection is not confined to whoever signs the lease.

## A definition of disability that twice refuses to close

Connecticut's definition is broader than the federal floor, and its drafting
shows the intent. Section 46a-64b(8) provides that "physical or mental
disability" "includes, **but is not limited to**, intellectual disability, as
defined in section 1-1g, and physical disability, as defined in subdivision
(15) of section 46a-51, and also includes, **but is not limited to**, persons
who have a handicap as that term is defined in the Fair Housing Act."

The federal test is imported as a floor and then explicitly declined as a
ceiling, twice in one sentence. Connecticut also lists learning disability
as a protected class in its own right, alongside a housing list that runs to
race, creed, colour, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or
expression, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status,
physical or mental disability and status as a veteran.

One more definitional point with practical bite: "dwelling" at § 46a-64b(2)
expressly includes a "mobile manufactured home park" or a portion of one. A
Connecticut manufactured-home community is inside the chapter by the
definition's own words.

## The exemption stops at two families, and Connecticut is full of threes

This is the fact most likely to change a real Connecticut tenant's answer.

Section 46a-64c(b)(1) takes two situations outside the section: renting a
room or rooms in a single-family dwelling unit where the owner occupies part
of it as a residence, and "a unit in a dwelling containing living quarters
occupied or intended to be occupied by **no more than two families** living
independently of each other, if the owner actually maintains and occupies
the other such living quarters as his residence."

No more than two. The state's older housing stock (the three-deckers of
Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury) is full of buildings with an
owner on one floor and tenants on the other two. An owner-occupied
**three**-family is not exempt, because the exemption never reaches a third
unit. South Carolina's equivalent carve-out runs to four families; Connecticut's
runs to two, and the difference is not a rounding error.

The federal Fair Housing Act also applies on its own terms, with exemptions
drawn differently again.

## The free tag at the town clerk, and who it is for

Connecticut's registration myth is stickier than most states' because the
thing people half-remember is real.

Section 22-345 provides that a person with a disability who owns or keeps a
dog trained as a service animal, or in training to become one, "shall
receive a license and tag for such dog from the town clerk of the town where
such dog is owned or kept," and that "no fee shall be required." Where the
dog has not been licensed before and it is not obvious that it is a service
animal, the clerk may ask whether the dog is required because of a
disability and what work or task it has been trained to perform. Those are
the ADA's two questions, sitting in a Connecticut licensing statute.

Then the definition: for that section, "service animal" "has the same
meaning as provided in 28 CFR 35.104, as amended from time to time." That
regulation turns on individual training to perform work or tasks, and
excludes animals whose function is providing emotional support.

So Connecticut issues a free tag, and an emotional support animal cannot
have one. There is no Connecticut ESA registry, no state ESA certificate and
no state ESA card. Ordinary dog licensing at your town clerk is a separate
obligation that applies to dogs generally, and has nothing to do with an
accommodation request.

## Deposits: two months, or one at sixty-two

Connecticut regulates the money in a way South Carolina does not.

Section 47a-21(b)(1) provides that "[i]n the case of a tenant under
sixty-two years of age, a landlord shall not demand a security deposit in an
amount that exceeds two months' rent." Subsection (b)(2) drops the ceiling
to **one month's rent** for a tenant aged 62 or older, and requires a
landlord already holding more than that from a tenant who turns 62 to return
the excess on request.

What counts as a security deposit is defined at § 47a-21(a)(11): "any
advance rental payment … except an advance payment for the first month's
rent or a deposit for a key or any special equipment." A refundable pet
deposit is an advance rental payment, so it counts **against** the ceiling
rather than sitting on top of it. A non-refundable fee and monthly pet rent
fall outside the definition, and Connecticut caps neither: the words "pet"
and "animal" appear nowhere in the chapter.

The deposit is returned, or accounted for in writing, "not later than
twenty-one days after termination of a tenancy or fifteen days after
receiving written notification of such tenant's forwarding address,
whichever is later": § 47a-21(d)(2). Under § 47a-21(c) it stays the
tenant's property, exempt from attachment by the landlord's creditors, and
§ 47a-21(i) provides for interest compounded annually.

For an approved assistance animal none of the pet money applies at all: the
accommodation adjusts a rule, and a rule adjustment is not a licence to keep
a pet on a fee schedule.

## Three hundred days, and no notary

If a covered landlord refuses, Connecticut gives you longer than most states
to act on it. Section 46a-82(f)(2) provides that a complaint for an act of
discrimination occurring on or after 1 October 2021 "shall be filed within
three hundred days after the date of the alleged act of discrimination." For
anything before that date, the older 180-day window in § 46a-82(f)(1) still
governs; the extension came in with Public Acts 21-40 and 21-109.

There is a second, smaller mercy in the same statute. Complaints to the
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities are filed in writing under
oath, "except that a complaint that alleges a violation of section 46a-64c
need not be notarized." Section 46a-64c is the housing section. Of all the
discrimination complaints Connecticut receives, the housing ones are the
category it decided should not require finding a notary first.

Section 46a-64c(a)(9) closes the loop by making it a discriminatory housing
practice to coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with anyone exercising
a right protected by the section, or with anyone who helped somebody else
exercise one.

## What to put in writing

Connecticut asks the same two things every state's version of this asks: that
you have a disability, and that the animal is needed because of it. You are
not required to hand over a diagnosis, a chart or a symptom list. The
connection is the point, not the details.

Statewide, 481,018 of Connecticut's 1,434,007 occupied homes are rented:
33.5 percent on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey, and median gross
rent is $1,488, which puts the ordinary two-month deposit ceiling near
$2,976 for a median unit. The stakes of getting a request answered properly
are not abstract.

Your own therapist can write the letter, if you have one and they will;
that is the cheapest route and worth asking about first, though it means an
appointment and a clinician who may never have written one. A community
mental health centre can do it as well, usually on a longer wait and through
an intake built for ongoing care rather than a single assessment.

Where neither fits, a licensed evaluation is what closes the gap: screening
questions, a professional licensed in Connecticut, and a letter only where
the evaluation supports one. That is the assessment the whole structure
turns on, and the one thing no registry, tag or certificate has ever
performed.

## Key statutes

- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(a)(6)(C)(ii)** (Discriminatory housing practices: the reasonable accommodation duty): For purposes of the disability subdivision, discrimination includes "a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." A no-pets policy is a rule in rules, policies, practices or services, and this is the sentence a Connecticut assistance-animal request rests on. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(a)(6)(A) and (B)** (Discriminatory housing practices: disability discrimination in rental): It is a discriminatory housing practice to deny a dwelling to, or otherwise make it unavailable to, a renter because of a learning disability or physical or mental disability, and to discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental on the same ground. The protection expressly reaches a disability of the renter, of a person who will reside in the dwelling, and of "any person associated with" them. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64d** (The 2024 act that named emotional support animals): Enacted by Public Act 24-18, § 15, effective 1 July 2024. The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities must publish links to educational materials on the differences between service animals, emotional support animals and therapy animals, on the rights and responsibilities of each owner under state and federal law, and on "permissible methods under state and federal law" for a place of public accommodation or a landlord to determine which kind of animal it is dealing with. The section binds the commission, not landlords, but it is Connecticut's own statement that the verification question is settled by law that already exists. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64b(8)** (Disability defined: the federal test as a floor, not a ceiling): "Physical or mental disability" "includes, but is not limited to, intellectual disability, as defined in section 1-1g, and physical disability, as defined in subdivision (15) of section 46a-51, and also includes, but is not limited to, persons who have a handicap as that term is defined in the Fair Housing Act." Twice in one sentence the definition refuses to close. Connecticut's list of protected classes in housing is correspondingly long, and includes lawful source of income and status as a veteran alongside disability. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64b(2)** ("Dwelling": including mobile manufactured home parks): A dwelling is any building, structure, "mobile manufactured home park" or portion of one occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families, and vacant land offered for the construction of such a building. A Connecticut manufactured-home community is inside the fair housing chapter by the definition's own words. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(b)(1)** (The owner-occupied exemption: and it stops at two families): The section does not apply to the rental of a room in a single-family dwelling unit where the owner occupies part of it as a residence, or to a unit in a dwelling "containing living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than two families living independently of each other, if the owner actually maintains and occupies the other such living quarters as his residence." In a state of two- and three-family houses, that limit matters: an owner-occupied three-family is not exempt, because the exemption stops at two. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(a)(9)** (Retaliation and interference): It is a discriminatory housing practice to coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment of a right granted or protected by the section, or on account of their having exercised it or having helped someone else exercise it. Asking for an accommodation is exercising a right granted by the section. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-82(f)(2)** (Three hundred days to file): A complaint for an act of discrimination occurring on or after 1 October 2021 "shall be filed within three hundred days after the date of the alleged act of discrimination." For acts before that date § 46a-82(f)(1) keeps the older 180-day window. Three hundred days is materially longer than most states allow, and the change came in with Public Acts 21-40 and 21-109. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-82(a)** (A housing complaint that needs no notary): Complaints to the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities are filed in writing under oath, "except that a complaint that alleges a violation of section 46a-64c need not be notarized." Section 46a-64c is the housing section, so the one category of complaint Connecticut exempts from the notary requirement is the housing one. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_814c.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 22-345** (The free service-animal tag: and what it is not for): A person with a disability who owns or keeps a dog trained, or in training, as a service animal receives a licence and tag from the town clerk with no fee required. Where a dog has not previously been licensed and it is not obvious that it is a service animal, the clerk may ask whether the dog is required because of a disability and what work or task it has been trained to perform: the ADA's two questions, in a Connecticut licensing statute. Critically, "service animal" here "has the same meaning as provided in 28 CFR 35.104," which excludes animals whose function is emotional support. Amended by P.A. 22-54, § 5 and P.A. 24-18, § 6. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_435.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-21(b)** (Security deposits: two months, or one at 62): "In the case of a tenant under sixty-two years of age, a landlord shall not demand a security deposit in an amount that exceeds two months' rent." For a tenant aged 62 or older the ceiling is one month's rent, and a landlord holding more than that from a tenant who turns 62 must return the excess on request. The cap is on the security deposit as defined in § 47a-21(a)(11) (any advance rental payment other than first month's rent or a key deposit), so a refundable "pet deposit" counts against it. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_831.htm)
- **Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-21(d)(2)** (Twenty-one days to return the deposit): A landlord must deliver the deposit, or a written statement of damages, "not later than twenty-one days after termination of a tenancy or fifteen days after receiving written notification of such tenant's forwarding address, whichever is later." Under § 47a-21(c) the deposit remains the tenant's property and is exempt from attachment by the landlord's creditors; § 47a-21(i) provides for interest, compounded annually. [Text](https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_831.htm)

**Registration myth:** Ask a Connecticut tenant where animals get registered and a surprising number will point at the town hall, and they are half right, which is what makes this one stubborn. The tag they are thinking of exists, costs nothing, and belongs to a different animal: § 22-345 reserves it for dogs individually trained to do work or perform tasks, borrowing the ADA's definition at 28 C.F.R. § 35.104 wholesale. Comfort, companionship and reassurance fall outside that definition, so no emotional support animal is eligible and none needs to be. Nothing else in the statute book fills the gap: no state ESA list, no card, no certificate, no number to quote at a leasing office. A landlord weighing an accommodation is weighing whether you have a disability and whether the animal answers it, two findings that require someone qualified to have examined you, which is precisely what a purchased credential skips.

## What Connecticut landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64c(a)(6)(C)(ii), and 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally.
- Cannot treat a no-pets policy as the end of the conversation, because a no-pets policy is one of the "rules, policies, practices or services" the statute names.
- Cannot apply a narrower idea of disability than Connecticut's own. Section 46a-64b(8) defines physical or mental disability as including, "but not limited to," the federal Fair Housing Act's "handicap": the federal test is the floor here, not the ceiling.
- Cannot demand a state registration, certificate or town tag for an emotional support animal. The free tag § 22-345 provides is for service animals as defined in 28 C.F.R. § 35.104, and no Connecticut tag exists for an ESA.
- Cannot charge pet rent, a pet deposit or a pet fee for an approved assistance animal, because the accommodation changes a rule rather than granting permission to keep a pet.
- Cannot demand a security deposit above two months' rent, or above one month's rent from a tenant aged 62 or older, § 47a-21(b), and must return it, or a written statement of damages, within twenty-one days.
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant for making the request or for helping someone else make one: § 46a-64c(a)(9).
- Cannot rely on the owner-occupied exemption in a three-family house. Section 46a-64c(b)(1)(B) reaches dwellings for "no more than two families" where the owner lives in the other unit, and stops there.

**Can:**
- May ask whether the tenant has a disability and a disability-related need for the animal, and may seek documentation establishing those two things: the boundary state and federal law draw, and the boundary § 46a-64d directs the commission to explain.
- May decline where the specific animal would be a direct threat or would cause substantial physical damage, on an individual assessment of the actual animal rather than a rule about its breed or weight.
- May count a refundable pet deposit against the § 47a-21(b) ceiling rather than on top of it, because the cap applies to any advance rental payment other than first month's rent or a key deposit.
- May fall outside § 46a-64c where the rental is a room in the owner's own single-family home, § 46a-64c(b)(1)(A). The federal Fair Housing Act still applies on its own terms.

## How to get an ESA letter in Connecticut

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Connecticut. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Connecticut clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation Connecticut landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Connecticut. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## City guides in Connecticut

- [ESA letters in Bridgeport](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/bridgeport.md)
- [ESA letters in Stamford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/stamford.md)
- [ESA letters in New Haven](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/new-haven.md)
- [ESA letters in Hartford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/hartford.md)
- [ESA letters in Waterbury](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/waterbury.md)
- [ESA letters in Norwalk](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/norwalk.md)
- [ESA letters in Danbury](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/danbury.md)
- [ESA letters in New Britain](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/new-britain.md)
- [ESA letters in Fairfield](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/fairfield.md)
- [ESA letters in Greenwich](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/greenwich.md)
- [ESA letters in West Hartford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/west-hartford.md)
- [ESA letters in Bristol](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/bristol.md)
- [ESA letters in Hamden](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/hamden.md)
- [ESA letters in Meriden](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/meriden.md)
- [ESA letters in Manchester](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/manchester.md)
- [ESA letters in West Haven](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/west-haven.md)
- [ESA letters in Stratford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/stratford.md)
- [ESA letters in Milford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/milford.md)
- [ESA letters in East Hartford](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/east-hartford.md)
- [ESA letters in Middletown](https://supportanimal.com/blog/connecticut-emotional-support-animal/middletown.md)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Connecticut have a law about emotional support animals?

Since 1 July 2024, it has a section that names them. Public Act 24-18 added Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-64d, which requires the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to publish materials on the differences between service animals, emotional support animals and therapy animals, and on the permissible methods under state and federal law by which a landlord may determine which kind of animal is in front of them. Read it carefully and it grants a tenant nothing directly. It is a duty on the agency. What it does show is that Connecticut treats the verification question as answered by law that already exists. The right that actually protects you is older and more general: § 46a-64c(a)(6)(C)(ii), the reasonable accommodation duty.

### Can a Connecticut landlord charge a pet deposit for an emotional support animal?

Not for an approved assistance animal: the accommodation adjusts a rule rather than granting permission to keep a pet, so the pet fee schedule does not attach. Connecticut adds a second layer worth knowing even outside the accommodation context: § 47a-21(b) caps the security deposit at two months' rent, or one month's rent for a tenant aged 62 or older, and "security deposit" is defined at § 47a-21(a)(11) as any advance rental payment other than the first month's rent or a key deposit. A refundable pet deposit is an advance rental payment, so it counts against that ceiling rather than sitting on top of it. Monthly pet rent and non-refundable fees fall outside the definition, and Connecticut does not cap them.

### How long do I have to file a housing discrimination complaint in Connecticut?

Three hundred days, which is considerably longer than most states allow. Section 46a-82(f)(2) provides that a complaint for an act of discrimination occurring on or after 1 October 2021 must be filed within 300 days of that act; the older 180-day window in § 46a-82(f)(1) still governs anything before that date. There is a second small mercy in the same statute: complaints are ordinarily filed under oath, "except that a complaint that alleges a violation of section 46a-64c need not be notarized", and § 46a-64c is the housing section. A Connecticut housing complaint does not need a notary.

### My landlord lives in the building. Does Connecticut's fair housing law still apply?

In most Connecticut two- and three-family houses, yes. The exemption in § 46a-64c(b)(1) is narrow: it covers renting a room in a single-family home the owner lives in, and a unit in a dwelling "occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than two families" where the owner occupies the other one. That means an owner-occupied three-decker (a very common building in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford) is not exempt, because the exemption stops at two families. Note also that the federal Fair Housing Act applies on its own terms, and draws its exemptions differently.

### Do I need to register my ESA with my Connecticut town clerk?

No, and the reason this question comes up so often in Connecticut is that a real, free tag exists for a different animal. Section 22-345 gives a person with a disability whose dog is a trained service animal (or in training to be one), a licence and tag from the town clerk with no fee. But the section defines "service animal" as it is defined in 28 C.F.R. § 35.104, the ADA regulation, and that definition excludes animals whose function is emotional support. There is no Connecticut ESA tag to obtain. Ordinary dog licensing at your town clerk is a separate matter that applies to any dog, ESA or not.

### What counts as a disability for a Connecticut housing accommodation?

More than the federal test does. Section 46a-64b(8) defines "physical or mental disability" as including "but not limited to" intellectual disability under § 1-1g, physical disability under § 46a-51(15), and "but not limited to, persons who have a handicap as that term is defined in the Fair Housing Act." The federal standard is the floor, and the definition twice declines to close the list. Connecticut's housing protections also cover learning disability as its own named class, and extend to a disability of a person who will live in the dwelling or of anyone associated with the renter, not only of the person signing the lease.

### Does an ESA letter let my animal into Connecticut shops and restaurants?

No. An ESA letter is a housing document, and the accommodation duty it supports lives in the fair housing section, § 46a-64c. Public accommodations are governed separately, and Connecticut's service-animal definition at § 22-345 tracks 28 C.F.R. § 35.104, which turns on trained work or tasks rather than on the comfort an animal provides. Section 46a-64d exists precisely because the legislature saw those categories being confused. It tells the commission to publish materials explaining the differences between service animals, emotional support animals and therapy animals.

### What should my Connecticut request actually say?

Put it in writing, and keep it to the two things that matter: that you have a disability, and that the animal is needed because of it. You do not have to disclose your diagnosis, hand over medical records or describe your symptoms: the question is the connection between the impairment and the animal, not the details of the impairment. Send it to whoever can actually decide, keep a copy of everything, and note the date, because your 300-day clock under § 46a-82(f)(2) runs from the act you are complaining about. If the answer is no, the refusal itself is the thing to get in writing.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=connecticut-emotional-support-animal