Policy Manual

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Policy IHBAK

A primary concern of South Portland School Department shall be with the health and  safety of its students. In emergency situations involving accident or illness, school  employees should undertake reasonable efforts to provide first aid or life-sustaining  emergency care to the extent of their knowledge and training, and/or to seek the  assistance of school medical personnel or other staff members to obtain emergency  assistance for the student.  

For those students who may present an ongoing need for medical interventions at school,  including a need for life-sustaining emergency care, school personnel shall convene a  team meeting for the purpose of developing an individualized plan to address the  student’s specialized health needs. The team should include persons at the school who  are knowledgeable about the student, as well as the student’s parents and a school  administrator. The Team may consider requests from the parents that alternative forms of  life-sustaining emergency care be used as part of that plan, but those requests must be  substantiated by specific medical documentation from the student’s physician. The Team  shall not approve a parental request to deny all life-sustaining emergency care for a  student, but may specify that only certain types of intervention are appropriate in a  particular situation.  

For the purpose of this policy, “life-sustaining emergency care” means any procedure or  intervention applied by appropriately trained school staff that may prevent a student from  dying who, without such a procedure or intervention, faces a risk of imminent death.  Examples of life-sustaining emergency care include: efforts to stop bleeding, unblocking  airways, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (“CPR”).  

Legal Reference: 29 USC § 794(a)  

Cross Reference: JLCE – First Aid and Emergency Medical Care  

Adopted: July 8, 2002 

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