Agency of Education urges cardiac annex in school emergency plans, stops short of AED mandate

Agency of Education interim operations director Courtney O'Brien told the Health Education committee on March 12, 2025, that cardiac emergency response planning is incorporated in existing emergency operations plan guidance and recommended strengthening the state template rather than creating a separate prescriptive requirement for automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

O'Brien said the proposed bill H.247 "very closely resembles" parts of Act 29 of 2023 that require comprehensive emergency operations plans (EOPs) and local partner integration, but that Act 29 does not mandate equipment such as AEDs. "The emergency operations plan provisions of Act 29 do not require any sort of specific equipment, particularly not AEDs," O'Brien said.

The Agency of Education (AOE), working with the Vermont School Safety Center and Vermont Emergency Management, recommended adding a specific cardiac response annex to the existing EOP template and planning guide so schools can adopt standardized, evidence-based language without new, separate regulation. "Our teams will work with experts in the cardiac response field to ensure that best practices are captured in a format that is consistent with Vermont Emergency Management response planning and can be duplicated by a school or district," O'Brien said.

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