Life-Sustaining Emergency Care
NEPN/NSBA CODE: IHBAK

A primary concern of the Yarmouth School Department 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 seek the assistance of school medical personnel or other staff members to obtain emergency assistance for the student. School employees shall contact an ambulance in accordance with regular school procedures to secure the speedy transportation of the student to a medical facility.

For the purpose of this policy, “life-sustaining emergency care” means any procedure or intervention that may prevent a student from dying. Examples of life-sustaining emergency care include: efforts to stop bleeding, unblocking airways, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, treatment of anaphylaxis, automatic external defibrillator (AED), and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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 health plan (IHP) to address the student’s specialized health needs. If the student has been identified with a disability and in need of special education services, the IHP shall be prepared and reviewed at least annually by that student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team as part of the IEP process. If the student does not have an IEP, an appropriately constituted multidisciplinary school-based team, involving the parents and in consultation with the school physician, as necessary, shall annually prepare an IHP.

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.


Legal Reference:
29 USC § 794(a)
Cross Reference:
JLCE – First Aid and Emergency Medical Care
EBCF – Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs)
Adopted: January 27, 2011