Senate education committee readies bill adding AED requirements, tightens student-device rules

The Senate Education Committee on May 15 reviewed draft 14.3 of an education bill that would require schools to include cardiac emergency response measures — including placement and maintenance of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), staff CPR/AED training, and athletic emergency action plans — in their emergency operations plans, and would add a statewide model policy limiting student use of cell phones and other non‑school personal electronic devices.

Committee members agreed to move language on cardiac emergency response into the state emergency operations plan statute and to adopt compromise text offered by the American Heart Association and the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE). "This is the language that we received via email this afternoon from the American Heart Association and AOE," said Beth St. James, Office of Legislative Counsel, as she described the proposed statutory placement and the required elements for cardiac response plans. The committee also instructed staff to remove a clause that would have limited device exceptions to situations with "no reasonable alternative."

The nut graf: the draft pairs two substantive school‑safety measures. One requires that the statewide emergency‑plan template maintained by the Vermont School Safety Center include "hazard‑specific provisions for acute cardiac events," with protocols for AED use and maintenance, staff roles in responding to sudden cardiac arrest, drills and EMS integration, and a requirement that athletic venues have clearly marked, accessible AEDs. The other establishes a model policy that generally prohibits student use of non‑school issued electronic devices but allows administrator‑approved use for academic, athletic or co‑curricular activities and includes special provisions for certain students.

Committee members and stakeholders described the cardiac language and implementation timing. St. James read the core elements into the record: the cardiac provision would "include, at a minimum, hazard specific provisions for acute cardiac events in schools, including protocols which address the use and maintenance of automated external defibrillator devices," and would require staff training, drills and athletic emergency action plans consistent with the Vermont Principals Association guidance. A representative of the American Heart Association told the committee that the association and AOE "are happy with it," and urged the committee to adopt the compromise language now on the table.

On the device policy, Oliver Olsen of the Vermont Independent Schools Association said he supported administrator approval language but warned that one proposed clause — limiting exceptions to cases where "there is no reasonable alternative" — could have unintended consequences. "That would be very disruptive for a lot of schools," Olsen said, describing examples such as bring‑your‑own‑device laptop policies that could be curtailed by a strict reading. Committee members agreed to strike the phrase and instead keep the device exception framed as: "approved by an administrator for an academic, athletic, or co‑curricular purpose for the most limited use reasonably possible." The draft also explicitly references compliance with the federal McKinney‑Vento Homeless Assistance Act and includes an accommodation path for international students who do not have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 plan; the transcript states that in such cases "the need for such use shall be documented in a manner the school deems appropriate."

The committee discussed technical edits and formatting — changing a subsection label from "findings" to the section title "cell phone and social media use in schools," replacing the term "Bluetooth" with "aura wireless capabilities" in the model text, and removing duplicated or conflicting language that appears elsewhere in a larger bill. Members directed counsel to prepare draft 14.3 with the agreed changes and to submit a clean copy for committee editing and a forthcoming vote; a committee member noted an intended effective date tied to the 2026–27 school year but left language that would allow earlier local adoption if districts so choose.

Distinguishing discussion from direction: the transcript records substantive discussion of device‑policy wording and AED requirements, stakeholder input from the Vermont Independent Schools Association and the American Heart Association, and clear committee directions — notably the instruction to strike the "no reasonable alternative" clause, to adopt the AHA/AOE cardiac language into the emergency operations plan statute, and to prepare draft 14.3 for a vote. The transcript does not contain a formal recorded roll‑call vote on the final draft within the provided segment.

The ending: staff and counsel said they would finalize the revised draft, run it through editing, and distribute a clean copy for the committee's vote. Committee members noted the bill will likely return to subsequent committees (including finance) where appropriations and implementation planning will be assessed.