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Committee advances bill encouraging cardiac emergency readiness in schools after testimony of saved kindergartner
Summary
HB 1398 advanced after testimony from Cabot school board member Sarah Owen and Representative Lee Johnson; proponents described existing 'heart-safe' district efforts, AED availability and called for a standardized cardiac emergency plan and parent-facing materials.
Representative Lee Johnson presented HB 1398 (as amended), which the sponsor said aims to increase readiness for cardiac arrest in schools through standardized cardiac emergency planning and public information materials. Sarah Owen, Cabot Public Schools board member and mother of a student with a congenital heart defect, testified that a recently implemented heart-safe building plan saved a kindergartner's life when the district’s emergency response and AED access were used.
Owen described Cabot’s partnership with Project Adam and Arkansas Children’s Hospital to certify each building as a heart-safe site and said that AEDs and an established response plan enabled first responders to intervene quickly. She told the committee the plans give parents confidence to send children with medical needs to school.
Committee members asked whether the bill would impose fiscal impacts on districts. Owen and the sponsor said most schools already have AEDs and that the measure’s principal costs would be educational materials and training; the transcript records that committee members were told “to my knowledge, no” significant fiscal impact to DESE was expected. Representative McKenzie and others praised the bill and the witness for advocacy. The committee voted to pass the bill by voice vote.
The committee record contains testimony that AEDs and cardiac-response plans exist in some districts and that hardship or implementation details vary locally; the bill passed without recorded roll-call.
