Instructor leading a CPR and AED training session with practice manikins

Pennsylvania has given its schools until May 2029 to train staff in CPR and defibrillator use, keep a certified person in every building during the school day, and maintain a cardiac emergency response plan. The law is named for Greg Moyer, a Pennsylvania student athlete who died of sudden cardiac arrest at a high school basketball game.

Most coverage of a law like this stops at the headline. What matters to anyone running a school, a district or an athletic program is narrower: who exactly has to hold a certification, how often, and what that certification actually takes to obtain. Below is the requirement as written, and what meeting it involves in practice.

Key facts

Pennsylvania schools must offer CPR and AED training to employees and volunteers at least once every two years.
At least one person holding current CPR and AED certification must be in every school building during the school day.
Certification is mandatory for school nurses or their designees, athletic coaches, athletic directors, physical education teachers and marching band directors.
AEDs must be readily accessible during interscholastic athletic practices and competitions, not only during the school day.
Each school must develop and annually review a cardiac emergency response plan built on nationally recognized standards.
The law carries $2.5 million in grant funding for training and AED purchase, with a compliance deadline of May 2029.

The two-year cycle is the part worth noticing

The training interval in the law is once every two years. That is not an arbitrary number. A CPR and AED certification issued to a recognized standard is valid for two years, and the reason is skill decay: chest compression depth and rate, and the sequence for attaching and using a defibrillator, degrade measurably within months of training if they are not practiced. The retest is the point of the cycle, not the paperwork.

This has a practical consequence for schools. If a district trains a cohort of coaches and PE teachers together in one summer, that whole cohort expires together, and the building can fall out of compliance in a single week. Staggering certification across a staff, so that expiry dates are spread through the year, keeps at least one certified person present far more reliably than a single annual training day does.

The same applies to the requirement for a certified person in every building. A district that counts its total number of certified staff is measuring the wrong thing. The requirement is per building, per school day, which means coverage has to survive absence, illness and staff turnover.

What CPR and AED certification actually involves

Schools budgeting for this deserve a real number rather than an estimate. A CPR/AED certification course covering adults, children and infants runs to 275 minutes of instruction, or 4 hours 35 minutes, when taught entirely in a classroom. That total includes a 10 minute practical skills examination and a 20 minute written examination.

Where the knowledge portion is completed online beforehand, the in-person session falls to 170 minutes, or 2 hours 50 minutes. The skills evaluation itself is always conducted in person, with an instructor, on manikins and real equipment. It cannot be completed by webcam or on a virtual manikin, and no certificate should be issued on online coursework alone. That is worth checking against any provider offering a fully online card, because a card issued without a hands-on assessment will not stand up to the kind of audit a compliance deadline invites.

To certify, a participant must attend every session, demonstrate every required skill, and pass the written examination at 80 percent or better. Class sizes are capped at ten participants per instructor so that everyone gets hands-on time, with a second instructor or an authorized assistant added above that number. Renewal is the same course delivered in full: there is no shortened refresher, and no difference in content, length or standard between a first certification and a renewal.

For a school, that means a realistic plan is roughly half a day per person in the classroom format, or under three hours of in-person time per person if staff complete the coursework online first. Ten people per instructor is the constraint that usually sets the calendar.

Expert view

Jackie Stern, Lifeguard Instructor, Firefighter and EMT, who reviews course content for American Aquatics and Safety Training, puts the emphasis on the plan rather than the certificate:

“A cardiac emergency response plan only works if the people named in it hold current certification and know, without looking, where the nearest defibrillator is. The two-year training cycle in this law matches how long a certification stays valid, and that is not a coincidence. Skills fade. The retest is the whole point of the cycle, not a formality at the end of it.”

What schools should do before the deadline

Count coverage per building, not per district. The requirement is that a certified person is present in each building during the school day. Map it building by building, then check what happens on a day when your one certified person is absent.
Record expiry dates, not just certifications. A certification is valid for two years. Track when each expires and stagger renewals so a cohort does not lapse together.
Check the named roles first. Nurses or their designees, athletic coaches, athletic directors, physical education teachers and marching band directors are named explicitly. Start there, then widen to volunteers.
Audit AED access against the athletic calendar. The requirement covers interscholastic practices and competitions, which happen outside school hours and often away from the building where the AED is mounted.
Write the response plan before you buy anything. The plan tells you how many devices you need and where they go. Buying first and planning second is how schools end up with defibrillators locked in an office at 6pm on a Saturday.
Use the grant funding. $2.5 million is allocated for training and AED acquisition. Districts that plan early are better placed to draw on it.

Although this particular law applies to Pennsylvania, the structure of it is now common: a named certification requirement, a written cardiac emergency response plan, and defibrillator access tied to athletics. Schools in other states are generally working towards a comparable standard, and the practical work of counting coverage and tracking expiry dates is the same wherever you are.

If you are working out what your staff need, our CPR and AED certification course covers adults, children and infants, and the version written for workplace and school requirements sets out what an employer or licensing body is usually asking for.

Sources

Reviewed by Jackie Stern, Lifeguard Instructor, Firefighter and EMT. Jackie Stern has taught lifeguarding for more than 20 years and works as a firefighter, EMT and swim instructor. She reviews course content, prerequisites and rescue standards against current certification requirements.

School CPR and AED Requirements: What Pennsylvania’s New Law Sets as the Standard