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of Life Savers

AB 1473 Supports Expanding CPR Training In Schools
To date, 41 states require CPR training as part of high school curriculum. California’s Assembly Bill 319 (2015) established the instruction of hands-only CPR training in high schools requiring a health class to graduate. But the majority of California school districts do not offer a health class, which not only means scores of youth are deprived of these critical life-saving skills, but also presents health equity disparities across the state’s socio-economically diverse school communities. In addition, the importance of AED training is currently underemphasized.

AB 1473 (Maienschein) seeks to address sudden cardiac arrest as a public health crisis by empowering all youth to save a life where they live, learn and play.

This bill would amend current law to:

  • Require the instruction of hands-only CPR and use of an AED in either a health or physical education (PE) class as part of a graduation requirement.
  • Require student athletes who opt out of PE and have no health class requirement to participate in the above instruction as part of their sports program

This bill is sponsored by the California Department of Education
and co-sponsored by the Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation and Keeping the Beat.

Upwards of 356,000 people are lost annually to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), among them up to 23,000 youth. It’s long been established that the persistently low survival rate of just 10 percent can be tripled with immediate bystander intervention with hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and can be boosted up to 90 percent with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) prior to EMS arrival. Alarmingly, 70 percent of Americans feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they do not know how to perform CPR.

What’s more, a witnessed sudden cardiac arrest adult or child victim who is Black or Hispanic or is in a Black or Hispanic neighborhood is less likely to receive bystander CPR.

A recent study showed just over 75% of young adults who did a single, 20-minute CPR training session said they’d be willing to perform CPR on a stranger. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long supportedmandating CPR/AED training in all public and private schools. According to the Whole Child framework, schools play a critical role in not only promoting the health and safety of young people but in establishing lifelong behaviors, which is why AB 1473 seeks to collaborate more comprehensively with schools to advance this public health initiative

AB1473 is Supported By:
Avive Solutions, Grossmont Healthcare District, Heartfelt Cardiac Connections, In A Heartbeat, just1mike, Kyle J. Taylor Foundation, Philips Electronics North America, Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation, Travis Roy Sudden Cardiac Arrest Fund, Via Heart Project