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JCPS spends more than $500,000 on new AED devices in school buildings. Here's why.

A person should be able to get to an AED within two minutes from anywhere inside any JCPS building, officials said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) building will have at least one automated external defibrillator (AED) by the end of next year, with some buildings having as many as six, according to officials.

AEDs are medical devices that are used on people experiencing cardiac arrest. It helps to shock their heart back into a regular rhythm.

This month, JCPS began installing 337 AEDs in its 165 schools and other district properties.

District officials said although several JCPS schools already have AEDs, most were purchased by those schools' PTAs or with school funds.  JCPS Executive Director of Safety and Environmental Services Dave Self, and other administrators, believe it would be "more equitable" if the school district paid for AEDs so every school could have them.

Credit: Jefferson County Public Schools
AEDs, or automated external defibrillators, can be used on people experiencing cardiac arrest to help shock their heart back into rhythm.

"Cardiac events happen anywhere, including in our schools or at athletic facilities," Self said. "We want to make sure our schools have these devices in place and staff are quipped an prepared to use them to save a life."

According to a JCPS spokesperson, the district is spending $552,000 on the new AEDS. Some of that funding will go toward training at least six people at each location on AED, CPR and other first aid procedures.

The number of portable AEDs in a JCPS building will depend on its size. 

High schools will have five or six with one in the front lobby, one portable unit with the athletics director and the rest in cases throughout the building, officials said.

Self said anyone should be able to get to a device within two minutes from anywhere within the building.

New AED installations began this November and will be installed over three phases. High school and special sites are included in phase one, followed by middle schools and finally, elementary schools.

Cintas will be installing the AEDs and providing training, according to a district news release.

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