# ESA Letter in Lawrence, KS: Kansas Really Does Print a Card

> K.S.A. 39-1111 describes an assistance dog ID card with a photograph. It covers hotels and carriers, not dwellings — and the user can write it themselves.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/kansas-emotional-support-animal/lawrence/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-05
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 97,271
- Households renting: 56.4%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The biggest renter market in Kansas that is not Wichita or Overland Park

Lawrence has 23,198 renting households out of 41,129 occupied homes, **56.4
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate,
against 32.8 percent statewide.

Manhattan is 56.5 percent. One-tenth of a percentage point ahead, with
12,584 renting households to Lawrence's 23,198. So Manhattan holds the share
superlative and Lawrence is the much larger market, and this page will not
round the difference away in either direction.

Median gross rent is $1,091, thirty-one dollars above the $1,060 Kansas
median. The 2024 Census estimate puts Lawrence at 97,271, sixth in the
state.

A university town where more than half of all households rent is also a town
where landlords have systems, forms and a checklist of things they ask for.
In Kansas, one of the things on that checklist is a card that exists.

## Kansas printed an ID card

This is the reason the registry myth is more persuasive in Kansas than
almost anywhere. Most states have nothing resembling an assistance-animal
identification document, so a landlord demanding one is asking for something
imaginary.

Kansas has one in statute. K.S.A. 39-1111 describes it in detail: the legal
name of the dog's user, the name, address and telephone number of the
facility, school or trainer, whether the dog is designated a guide, hearing
assistance or service dog, and **a picture or digital photographic likeness
of the dog user and the dog**.

That is a real document, described in a real statute, and a Lawrence
landlord who has seen a reference to it is not hallucinating.

## Three things end its relevance to your apartment

**One: it is a public-places procedure.**

The section opens by applying where a question arises whether an assistance dog qualifies to
accompany a person with a disability "**in or upon any place set forth in K.S.A. 39-1101**."

K.S.A. 39-1101 lists common carriers and modes of transportation; hotels,
lodging places and places of public accommodation, amusement or resort,
including food service establishments; and other places to which the general
public is invited. **Dwellings are not in it.**

The housing words a Kansas tenant may have seen, "in the acquisition and use of rental,
residential housing", appear in K.S.A. 39-1102, 39-1107 and 39-1108. Each of those sections
added housing to its own grant of rights. K.S.A. 39-1111 does not repeat them and refers only
to 39-1101.

**Two: it is permissive.**

The person with a disability "**may produce**" the card. Not shall. It is a way of settling a
dispute quickly at a hotel desk, not a licence you are required to hold, and nothing in the
section conditions any right on carrying one.

**Three: the user can write it.**

K.S.A. 39-1111(a)(2) provides for a card where "the assistance dog has been trained by the
person using the dog." It contains the user's legal name, their address, "a statement that the
dog has been trained to mitigate the dog user's disability," and a photograph.

Read that again. The document is written and asserted by the person it describes.

A scheme whose own statute allows the holder to produce their own card is not a registry.
There is no issuing authority, no verification, no Kansas database, and nothing to apply to.

## What that means for the myth

A Kansas landlord asking for "the card" is asking for something that (a) does not apply to
housing, (b) is optional where it does apply, and (c) in one of its two forms is written by
the tenant.

Which is worth explaining rather than simply refusing, because the request
usually comes from a genuine misunderstanding rather than from bad faith.

## The offence, and where it stops

K.S.A. 39-1112 makes it a class A nonperson misdemeanor to:

> "(a) Represent that such person has the right to be accompanied by an assistance dog **in or
> upon any place listed in K.S.A. 39-1101** … unless such person has the right … ; or
> (b) represent that such person has a disability **for the purpose of acquiring an assistance
> dog** unless such person has such disability."

Branch (a) is about access to public places. Branch (b) is about acquiring a
dog. Neither reaches a housing accommodation request made to a landlord.

Kansas has created no offence of asking for an accommodation and being
refused, and no equivalent of South Dakota's SDCL 43-32-36, which lets a
landlord evict and claim up to a thousand dollars for knowingly fraudulent
housing documentation. That difference between the two states is real and
worth knowing.

## What actually governs the tenancy

**K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B)**: 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 residential real property."
**42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** says the same thing federally.

Neither asks for a card, a certificate, a registration or a photograph.

Charges attached to the animal come off under **K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2)**, discrimination in
"the terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental. K.S.A. 58-2550(a)'s additional half-month
pet deposit is available only "if the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep or maintain
pets," which an accommodation animal is not there under, and the unfurnished cap is one
month's periodic rent.

And do not reach for **K.S.A. 39-1108**, whose extra-charge bar in housing belongs to a
"service dog, specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose."

## The clock on an academic lease

Kansas gives six months. K.S.A. 44-1005(i) runs them from the act, or from
the last act where a continuing pattern is pleaded, and the complaint goes
to the commission K.S.A. 44-1003 creates. On a twelve-month Lawrence lease
signed in August, a September refusal expires the following March, inside
the tenancy, which is more forgiving than a nine-month lease in a 180-day
state.

## What to say when the card is asked for

A short, non-confrontational answer usually ends it.

The Kansas card in K.S.A. 39-1111 applies to the public places listed in
K.S.A. 39-1101: carriers, hotels, places of public accommodation, and not to
dwellings; it is optional even there; and where a dog is self-trained, the
statute has the user write the card themselves.

Then move the conversation to what does apply: a reasonable accommodation
under K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B), supported by documentation from a clinician.

Most landlords who ask for the card are repeating something they read rather
than testing you. The answer that works is an explanation, not a refusal.

## What the landlord is actually entitled to consider

Start with a clinician you already see. If your care runs through the
university's health or counselling services and that is a genuine clinical
relationship, that is the strongest and cheapest route, though campus
services carry semester-long waitlists, are configured for short-course
counselling rather than for writing disability determinations, and a
clinician who has seen you twice may properly decline to make a finding yet.

Where that route is closed, a licensed evaluation is the same examination
arranged deliberately: a licensed clinician determines whether a disability
is present and whether this animal is connected to it, then writes the
determination or explains that they cannot. Both endings are real.

Kansas printed a card and forgot to attach it to housing. What it did attach
to housing is a question that only an assessment answers.

## What Lawrence landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy residential real property: K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B).
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it: K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2).
- May not take a security deposit above one month's rent for an unfurnished unit, or 1½ months' where the landlord supplies the furniture, K.S.A. 58-2550(a).

**Can:**
- May take the additional pet deposit of up to half a month's rent only where the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep pets, K.S.A. 58-2550(a). An accommodation animal is not there on permission, so the condition is not satisfied.
- Must return the balance of the deposit within fourteen days of determining charges and no more than thirty days after termination, possession and demand, or face damages of one and a half times the amount wrongfully withheld: K.S.A. 58-2550(b) and (c).
- May refuse where the tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others, K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(7). This is an assessment of the individual animal and tenancy, not of a breed.
- May still hold the tenant liable for damage: K.S.A. 39-1108 makes even a trained service dog's handler liable for damage to the premises, and nothing in the accommodation duty says otherwise.
- Is not required to permit modifications at the landlord's expense, K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(A) puts reasonable modifications of existing premises at the cost of the person with the disability.
- Is exempt from the state act only within K.S.A. 44-1018(b): a four-family owner-occupied building, or an owner with an interest in no more than three single family houses renting without a broker. The federal Fair Housing Act runs its own, different exemptions.

## How to get an ESA letter in Lawrence

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Lawrence. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Kansas 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 Kansas 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 Lawrence. (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

## Housing help in Lawrence

- [Lawrence Housing Authority](https://lawrencehousing.org/) (local housing authority)
- [Douglas County](https://www.dgcoks.gov/) (county government)
- [Kansas Legal Services](https://www.kansaslegalservices.org/) (legal aid)
- [Disability Rights Center of Kansas](https://www.drckansas.org/) (disability rights org)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Lawrence landlord wants the Kansas assistance animal ID card. Do I need one?

No. K.S.A. 39-1111 does describe an identification card or letter, and it applies to "any place set forth in K.S.A. 39-1101": common carriers, hotels, lodging places, places of public accommodation, amusement or resort. Dwellings are not among them. The housing words in K.S.A. 39-1102, 39-1107 and 39-1108 were added by those sections; 39-1111 does not repeat them.

### Is the card compulsory even in the places it does cover?

No. The wording is that the person with a disability "may produce" the identification card or letter if a question arises. It is a way of resolving a dispute on the spot, not a licence you are required to hold, and nothing in the section makes carrying one a condition of the underlying right.

### Who issues these cards?

Nobody, in the sense a registry would. Under K.S.A. 39-1111(a)(1) a card for a dog trained by a facility, school or trainer comes from that trainer; under (a)(2), where "the assistance dog has been trained by the person using the dog," the card contains the user's own name and address and a statement that the dog has been trained to mitigate their disability. A scheme that lets the user write their own card has no state database behind it.

### Then which statute does govern my Lawrence rental?

K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B), which makes discrimination include "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 residential real property," together with the federal Fair Housing Act at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B). Neither asks for a card.

### What about the misrepresentation offence I have heard about?

It is real and it is somewhere else. K.S.A. 39-1112 creates a class A nonperson misdemeanor for two things: claiming access to a place enumerated in K.S.A. 39-1101 with a dog you have no right to bring, and claiming a disability in order to obtain an assistance dog. A request put to a landlord about a rental sits outside both, and no Kansas provision punishes a request that simply fails.

### Does Lawrence have the highest renter share in Kansas?

Second, by a tenth of a point. Lawrence is 56.4 percent and Manhattan is 56.5 percent on the 2020-2024 estimates. Lawrence has 23,198 renting households to Manhattan's 12,584, so it is much the larger rental market, but the share superlative belongs to Manhattan and this page will not claim it.

### How long do I have to complain about a refusal here?

Kansas allows six months, run under K.S.A. 44-1005(i) from the act or from the last act where a continuing pattern is pleaded, before the commission K.S.A. 44-1003 creates. On a twelve-month Lawrence lease signed in August, a refusal in September expires the following March, comfortably inside the tenancy, which a nine-month lease in a 180-day state would not be.

---

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=kansas-emotional-support-animal%2Flawrence