You Probably Have an AED. That’s Not the Same as Being Ready.

You Probably Have an AED. That's Not the Same as Being Ready.

Somewhere in your building there's an AED. You know roughly where it is. You're fairly sure it works.

That used to be enough. As of this school year, it isn't.

North Carolina's 2026 budget added a new requirement for every public school in the state — traditional, charter, regional, lab school. Every school now needs a written cardiac emergency response plan, reviewed every year. Not a device on a wall. A plan, on paper, that someone owns.

Here's what it has to contain, in plain terms:

• A cardiac emergency response team. Named people, not "whoever's nearby."
• How it gets activated. Who calls 911, who runs for the AED, who meets EMS at the door, who moves the students.
• Annual CPR and AED training for staff — at minimum your nurses and anyone supervising students in physical activity. Every year, not once.
• Annual practice drills. Same logic as a fire drill.
• Coordination with local EMS. Your responders should know your building before they're in it.

That's the whole list. Most schools are further along than they think — you likely have the device, and probably some trained staff. What's usually missing is the written plan and the annual rhythm.

About the money

The state put $4 million, one time, into helping schools with this. It's worth understanding how it actually works before you budget around it.

First priority goes to schools with no AED at all — up to $2,000 each, reduced proportionally if the money runs short. Only after those schools are covered may what's left support AED replacement or cardiac emergency training.

So the first question isn't "how do we get $2,000." It's "does our school qualify, and what do we do if it doesn't?" If you already have an AED, you're not in the priority group — but you may be in a more important one.

The question worth asking instead

The standard the statute sets is that an AED should be reachable within three minutes. Not present in the building. Reachable.

Walk it. Start at the far corner of your campus — the back field, the gym, the modular classroom, the second floor of the oldest building — and walk to your AED at the pace of someone who is frightened. Then walk back. If that round trip is over three minutes, one device isn't covering your campus, and no amount of state funding changes that arithmetic.

Survival from cardiac arrest drops roughly ten percent for every minute without defibrillation. Three minutes is not a bureaucratic number.

What to do in the next two weeks

1. Find out who owns this at your school. If the answer is unclear, that's the finding.
2. Inventory what you have — how many AEDs, what model, what age, where, and when the pads and battery expire. Pads and batteries have expiry dates and they are the most commonly missed item anywhere.
3. Do the three-minute walk. Write down the number.
4. Write the plan. The template below is a fill-in-the-blanks document, not a project.
5. Put the drill and the annual review on next year's calendar now, while you're thinking about it. This is the step that fails silently.

Free, no strings

The plan template, drill checklist, AED inspection log and a one-page summary for your board are free at rescuebeatspro.com/smart-heart-act-resources/. No form, no email required. Download them and run this yourselves — that's a completely fine outcome.

One note on the fine print: the State Board of Education still has to adopt the detailed rules on AED placement, training and maintenance. The requirement is in effect now; the specifics may be refined. Anyone telling you they know exactly what those rules will say is likely guessing.

If you'd rather be walked through it

I'm running a free session for NCPCSA members — "The Plan You Hope You Never Have to Use," Tuesday October 6 at 11:00am. Thirty minutes through the plan section by section, then fifteen for your questions. Register here.

I'm not neutral about this. In 2017 I collapsed at a race finish line and three strangers with CPR training and a nearby AED brought me back. Everything above is the version of preparedness I wish had been ordinary rather than lucky.

Bill Amirault is the founder of Rescue Beats in Clayton, NC.

The requirement was enacted in North Carolina's 2026 budget — Session Law 2026-41, Sec. 7.38, signed July 7, 2026 — and applies from the 2026–27 school year.