NEPN/NSBA Code:  IHBAK

LIFE-SUSTAINING EMERGENCY CARE 

A primary concern of the school unit shall be with the health and safety of its students. In emergency situations involving accident or illness, school employees should undertake reasonable efforts to provide first aid or life-sustaining emergency care to the extent of their knowledge and training, and/or to seek the assistance of school medical personnel or other staff members to obtain emergency assistance for the student. 

For those students who may present an ongoing need for medical interventions at school, including a need for life-sustaining emergency care, school personnel shall convene a team meeting for the purpose of developing an individualized plan to address the student’s specialized health needs. The Team should include persons at the school who are knowledgeable about the student, as well as the student’s parents and a school administrator. The Team may consider requests from the parents that alternative forms of life-sustaining emergency care be used as part of that plan, but those requests must be substantiated by specific medical documentation from the student’s physician. The Team shall not approve a parental request to deny all life-sustaining emergency care for a student, but may specify that only certain types of intervention are appropriate in a particular situation. 

For the purpose of this policy, “life-sustaining emergency care” means any procedure or intervention applied by appropriately trained school staff that may prevent a student from dying who, without such a procedure or intervention, faces a risk of imminent death. Examples of life-sustaining emergency care include: efforts to stop bleeding, unblocking airways, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (“CPR”), and Automated External Difibrillators (AEDs), if available. 

Legal Reference: 29 USC § 794(a) 

Cross Reference: JLCE – First Aid and Emergency Medical Care 

Adopted: September 24, 2018 

Revised: December 4, 2023