A bill for an act establishing the school health-related emergency response plan competitive grant program within the department of education, making appropriations, and including applicability provisions.
HSB719 creates a new school health-related emergency response plan competitive grant program within the Iowa Department of Education, contingent on a legislative appropriation. The program would help schools pay for developing and implementing cardiac emergency response plans, including plans for responding to cardiac arrest or similar life-threatening emergencies during the school day, physical education, extracurricular athletics, practices, and school-sponsored activities.
The bill defines key terms such as automated external defibrillator, athletic emergency action plan, and cardiac emergency response plan. It requires participating plans to include a cardiac emergency response team, AED placement and maintenance standards, emergency medical services notification procedures, distribution of the plan to attendance centers, ongoing CPR/AED training for relevant staff, annual drills, and annual review of the plan. It also directs the State Board of Education to adopt administrative rules and specifies that grant funds must supplement, not replace, existing public funding.
The bill would add a new section to Iowa Code chapter 280 and make related amendments to chapters 256E and 256F so charter schools and innovation zone schools are subject to cardiac emergency response plan requirements in the same manner as school districts. It would establish a dedicated state treasury fund for the grant program, appropriate deposited moneys to the Department of Education, and allow unused balances and interest to remain in the fund. The bill applies beginning with school years on or after July 1, 2027, and would affect school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools, innovation zone schools, and the Department of Education.
The available record shows no committee transcript or vote history, so there is no documented debate or recorded sentiment from lawmakers in the materials provided. Based on the bill text alone, the proposal appears to be a public-safety and preparedness measure aimed at improving emergency response capability in schools, especially for cardiac events and athletic settings.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of policy discussion, based on the bill’s structure, could include whether the state should fund the program through a competitive grant model, whether the AED placement and training requirements are too prescriptive or costly for schools, and whether the mandate should extend equally to nonpublic, charter, and innovation zone schools. However, these concerns are not reflected in any transcript or vote record here.