Requires the commissioner of education, in consultation with the commissioner of health, to develop a bleeding control kit program which requires bleeding control kits to be installed in easily accessible areas of schools; requires training of personnel to use bleeding control kits in the event of an injury to another person.
This bill would amend the Education Law to require the Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the Commissioner of Health, to establish a bleeding control kit program for schools. The program would require bleeding control kits to be placed in easily accessible areas and incorporated into school emergency operations plans or other security protocols. It would also require training for school personnel who may reasonably be expected to use the kits in response to an injury.
The bill specifies minimum contents for each kit, including a tourniquet, compressed gauze dressings, a trauma dressing, nitrile gloves, scissors, and instructional materials on preventing blood loss after a traumatic event. It also allows additional approved medical supplies, requires annual inspections and replacement of expired items, and mandates restocking after use. The bill authorizes the department to approve an online training course, such as one offered by the American College of Surgeons or a similar organization.
The bill would add a new statewide school safety and emergency preparedness requirement under Section 305 of the Education Law, applying to school districts, boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES), charter schools, and nonpublic schools. It would create operational duties for schools to maintain, inspect, and replenish bleeding control kits and to ensure relevant staff are trained. It also provides civil liability immunity for good-faith use of a kit by trained employees, absent gross negligence, which could affect school risk management and emergency response practices.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes in the provided materials, the measure appears to be framed as a school safety and emergency response bill with a generally protective, public-safety-oriented purpose. The inclusion of training, standardized kit contents, and liability protection suggests an effort to make the proposal practical for schools and acceptable to administrators. No opposing viewpoints are documented in the supplied context.
No committee transcript or voting record is provided, so no specific objections or supporters are identified in the available materials. Potential areas of contention inherent in the bill include the cost and administrative burden of purchasing, maintaining, and training staff on the kits, the scope of the mandate across public, charter, and nonpublic schools, and the liability standard tied to good-faith use and gross negligence. The bill’s requirement that schools integrate the kits into emergency and security planning may also raise implementation concerns for school districts and private school operators.