On July 24, 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law, known as Desha’s Law, that requires New York State public schools – including school districts, boards of cooperative educational services, county vocational education and extension boards, and charter schools – to incorporate a cardiac emergency response plan into their school safety plan.
Effective December 21, 2025, each school district-wide school safety team must develop and implement a cardiac emergency response plan.
The cardiac emergency response plan is a written document that must include venue-specific procedures for incidents involving an individual experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, or a similar life-threatening emergency, while attending or participating in an athletic practice or event while on school grounds, or while attending events on school grounds. Each plan must address the use of appropriate personnel to respond to such an incident and integrate nationally recognized, evidence-based core elements, such as those recommended by the American Heart Association.
School officials must consider how to best integrate their cardiac emergency response plan into their community EMS responder protocols. Annual school safety training must now include components on sudden cardiac arrest, in addition to violence prevention and mental health. New employees hired after the start of the school year should receive such training within thirty (30) days of hire if they did not already receive it as part of a district’s existing new hire training program or annual school safety training. In addition, the district-wide school safety team may provide voluntary training to relevant staff regarding sudden cardiac arrest, including CPR, AED, and first aid.
Defibrillators, which must be provided and maintained on-site, must be clearly marked, accessible, and maintained consistent with guidelines set by the American Heart Association (AHA), or other nationally recognized guidelines focused on emergency cardiovascular care. Relevant American Heart Association resources can be found here: https://cpr.heart.org/en/training-programs/aed-implementation.
Keane & Beane remains ready to answer any questions or assist you in ensuring compliance with this new law. Please contact any of Keane & Beane’s Education Law attorneys for assistance.
