diff --git a/api-gateway-routes/api_gateway_proxy_function.rb b/api-gateway-routes/api_gateway_proxy_function.rb
index 088620e0..acbb2887 100644
--- a/api-gateway-routes/api_gateway_proxy_function.rb
+++ b/api-gateway-routes/api_gateway_proxy_function.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@
 require 'aws-sdk-apigatewaymanagementapi'
 require 'uri'
 require_relative 'auth_response_helper'
+require_relative 'session_id_helper'
 include AuthResponseHelper
+include SessionIdHelper
 
 MAX_SQS_RETRIES = 3
 INITIAL_RETRY_SLEEP_S = 0.5
@@ -176,15 +178,6 @@ def get_region(context)
   context.invoked_function_arn.split(':')[3]
 end
 
-# SQS queues can only be named with the following characters:
-# alphanumeric characters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_)
-# See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-ruby/v3/api/Aws/SQS/Client.html#create_queue-instance_method
-# The connection ID always ends with an '='. We remove that here so we can use the connection ID as
-# our session ID.
-def get_session_id(event)
-  event["requestContext"]["connectionId"].delete_suffix("=")
-end
-
 def get_sqs_url(event, context)
   region = get_region(context)
   # ARN is of the format arn:aws:lambda:{region}:{account_id}:function:{lambda_name}
diff --git a/api-gateway-routes/session_id_helper.rb b/api-gateway-routes/session_id_helper.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..651e172e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api-gateway-routes/session_id_helper.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+module SessionIdHelper
+  # The session ID is the connection ID with any trailing '=' removed, so it can
+  # be used as an SQS queue name. SQS queues can only be named with the following
+  # characters: alphanumeric characters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_).
+  # See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-ruby/v3/api/Aws/SQS/Client.html#create_queue-instance_method
+  # The connection ID is base64-encoded, so it can end with one or more '='
+  # padding characters. We remove all of them here.
+  def get_session_id(event)
+    event["requestContext"]["connectionId"].sub(/=+$/, "")
+  end
+end
diff --git a/api-gateway-routes/test/session_id_helper_test.rb b/api-gateway-routes/test/session_id_helper_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a1b72b91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api-gateway-routes/test/session_id_helper_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+require 'minitest/autorun'
+require_relative '../session_id_helper'
+include SessionIdHelper
+
+class SessionIdHelperTest < Minitest::Test
+  def test_strips_single_trailing_padding_character
+    assert_equal 'PoofdetIoAMCJpg', get_session_id(event_with_connection_id('PoofdetIoAMCJpg='))
+  end
+
+  def test_strips_multiple_trailing_padding_characters
+    assert_equal 'gQwo_Q8CiQAYKAImwA', get_session_id(event_with_connection_id('gQwo_Q8CiQAYKAImwA=='))
+  end
+
+  def test_leaves_connection_id_without_padding_unchanged
+    assert_equal 'abc-123_XYZ', get_session_id(event_with_connection_id('abc-123_XYZ'))
+  end
+
+  private
+
+  def event_with_connection_id(connection_id)
+    {"requestContext" => {"connectionId" => connection_id}}
+  end
+end