Chinchillas in therapy sessions at schools and care homes sound like such a sweet idea! These adorable little creatures are not only super cute but also incredibly soft, which makes them perfect for calming and comforting interactions.
Personally I think chinchillas are great as pets but not for one-off and short interactions. I think naturally friendly dogs like the ones who sit on your lap as soon as they know you are friends with their owner. This kind of dogs would do a much much better job in therapies especially with people who have little to no experience with animals.
Chins are too fragile and people have to adjust to them rather than chinchillas adjusting to people what could lead to injuries as people not familiar with them and not careful enough would squeeze them every so often. Besides people new to chinchillas have no reflex and when chinchilla decides to run it results in even more squeezing and tail pulling.
I think my chinchilla male would suit better for this role as he is naturally approachable and curious but in a new room and surrounded by strangers, not so sure. I have a hard time imagining an interaction between a female chinchilla while surrounded by strangers even while in her big cage. I think chinchillas would end up quite stressed in an ever changing surrounding.
I would allow for interaction with chinchilla but once a person has already PASSED interaction with let's say a couple of dogs. And it would have to be a place where people come to rather than a chinchilla arriving in a cage.
In my opinion the rule of thumb should be that
the therapists should default to dogs which are better at reading people and are more forgiving. I understand the therapists want to broaden their offering but this is not doing anyone good. A friendly dog will do a much better job in therapy than a skittish chinchilla or a selfish cat.
I would go for a bunch of different dogs rather than a small zoo. It's not a coincidence that dogs are so popular.
Interaction with chinchillas is a steep learning process and impatient, imposing people will most likely mistreat/harm them in the process as who can resist not to touch them and 2 seconds later is pulling chinchilla's tail.
There was a 12 years boy successfully interacting with my male chin and he was careful enough but again it takes some time before they get use to each other. He wasn't comfortable to handle the chin though.
I can imagine putting a stranger in a chin-proof room to just sit on the ground and enjoy watching them jumping and taking sand baths until the chins get use to the stranger and start climbing on him/her and use as part of the terrain. That's the best chinchilla interaction you can get. Chinchillas don't like being held. I think cats are fine with that that is why they are second to dogs.
I find myself doing it at times but I know whenever I get tempted I lose some brownie points as a result as oftentimes human petting and cuddling is excessive to chinchillas. Most of the time I interact with them through an open cage.
They step on my palms only because they know and want to be transferred from the cage of origin to the cage of destination. I am like a shuttle to them
and I'm upset mine won't sit still long enough to even get regular non-blurry photo 
