Submitted by SCAFoundation on Wed, 01/25/2012 - 12:00am

Colorado students would have to know CPR and how to operate automated external defibrillators in order to graduate from high school under a new bill introduced Wednesday.

Senate Bill 12-098 would require all schools with high school students to offer student training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of an automated external defibrillators.

Students would have to successfully complete the training to graduate from high school. The State Board of Education would be required to issue regulations for the program, including monitoring and compliance. The state also would establish a grant-supported fund to help districts with costs of such training.

The idea is expected to face opposition from several segments of the education lobby, primarily because it would impose a mandate without state funding and because it can been seen as imposing on local control of graduation requirements.

The bill is being pushed by the American Heart Association, which is advocating such legislation in other states. 

Prime sponsors of the bill are Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, and Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs and chair of the House Education Committee. The heart association also is pushing legislation this year to ban use of trans fats in school foods.

Various school health and fitness bills have been defeated or watered down in recent sessions as school districts have successfully made the case that they shouldn’t have new requirements imposed on them without funding.

SOURCE: EdNewsColorado.org