AED Requirements in New York: Rules, Training, and Liability

AED requirements in New York apply to health clubs with 500 or more members, public assembly venues seating at least 1,000, every public school building, regulated children’s camps and qualifying youth sports leagues, and a list of New York City facilities under Local Law 20. If your facility falls into one of those categories, the law expects more than a device on the wall: you need a written collaborative agreement with an emergency health care provider, trained staff on hand during operating hours, ongoing maintenance, and visible signage. Miss those pieces and you can face civil fines, lose the liability protections the statutes offer, and expose your insurance coverage.

Who Must Have an AED

New York’s AED rules live in several different statutes, so the first question is which one applies to you.

Health Clubs

General Business Law 627-a covers every commercial health club with a membership of 500 or more, and the definition sweeps in gyms, health spas, weight-control studios, martial arts schools, and similar fitness businesses. You must keep at least one AED on the premises and have a person with current CPR and AED certification present during all business hours.¹

Places of Public Assembly

Public Health Law 225 applies to venues with an occupancy of at least 1,000, including stadiums, ballparks, arenas, civic centers, field houses, concert halls, theaters, and amphitheaters. Whenever the venue hosts an event, at least one trained staff member or volunteer must be present. Halls owned by churches, religious organizations, granges, and free libraries are exempt.²

Schools

Education Law 917 requires every school district, charter school, and BOCES to provide and maintain enough AEDs in each instructional facility for ready access in an emergency. At least one staff member trained in CPR and AED use must be available during school hours and at every school-sponsored event, including athletic activities.³

Effective January 20, 2026, Desha’s Law raises the bar. School AEDs must be clearly marked, accessible, and maintained consistent with American Heart Association guidelines or another nationally recognized emergency cardiovascular care standard. Schools must also adopt cardiac arrest emergency response plans with venue-specific procedures for athletic practices and events, coordination with local EMS, and parent notification procedures.³

Children’s Camps and Youth Sports

Public Health Law 3000-F requires every regulated children’s camp to have an AED available or to describe reasonable access to one. Youth sports programs hosting games, tournaments, or leagues with five or more participating teams face the same rule. Each covered program needs a written implementation plan with an equipment checklist, a cardiac emergency protocol, and best efforts to have a trained person present at every session, game, and practice.⁴

New York City Facilities

Local Law 20 adds obligations on top of state law. AEDs must be placed in nursing homes (unless they already provide 24/7 advanced life support with manual defibrillators), senior centers, publicly accessible parts of city-maintained buildings, selected city parks, city-owned ferry terminals with a passenger capacity of 1,000 or more, and all golf courses, stadiums, and arenas.⁵ A business inside the five boroughs should read both the state statute for its facility type and Local Law 20.

The Collaborative Agreement You Probably Haven’t Signed

Public Health Law 3000-b requires any person, business, or organization that operates an AED to enter a written collaborative agreement with an emergency health care provider. That provider can be a physician experienced in emergency cardiac care, a qualified physician assistant or nurse practitioner, or a hospital that provides emergency cardiac care. The agreement must set out written practice protocols and policies for compliance, and a copy has to be filed with both the Department of Health and the appropriate regional emergency medical services council before the AED goes into service.⁶

This is the step most businesses skip. Signing the collaborative agreement is what makes you a “public access defibrillation provider” under state law, and that status is what unlocks the immunity described below. Without it, the device is on the wall but the legal framework around its use is not.

Training That Counts

No one may operate an AED in New York without completing a training course approved by a nationally recognized organization (such as the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross) or by the State Emergency Medical Services Council. These courses cover CPR, AED operation, and basic emergency response, and certification lasts two years.⁶

The American Heart Association’s Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED course is offered in three formats: instructor-led classroom, blended (online modules plus an in-person skills session), and self-guided with a hands-on session at an approved simulation station. Every format includes a hands-on component, and all three produce the same two-year card. A purely online course with no in-person skills check does not satisfy the requirement.⁷

Staffing levels vary by facility. Health clubs need a certified person on duty at all times during business hours.¹ Public assembly venues need one during events.² Schools need trained staff during school hours and at every athletic activity. For children’s camps, the Department of Health recommends certification no older than one year, even though the statute permits the full twenty-four months.

Maintenance, Signage, and Access

AEDs must be maintained according to manufacturer guidelines. Routine work includes checking battery charge, verifying pad expiration dates, and confirming the device passes its self-test. Most units run automatic self-checks daily or weekly, but manual inspections should supplement them, and every inspection should be logged with the date, findings, and any corrective action. Battery and electrode-pad replacement intervals generally fall in the two-to-five-year range, and pads must be replaced immediately after any use.

Under Desha’s Law, schools face a higher benchmark starting January 20, 2026: AEDs must be maintained consistent with American Heart Association guidelines or another nationally recognized emergency cardiovascular care standard.³

Placement and signage matter as much as maintenance. State law requires AEDs to sit in prominent, easily identifiable locations along normal paths of travel, and Desha’s Law now specifies that school AEDs be clearly marked.³ Local Law 20 requires NYC devices to be positioned for timely access by trained persons at all times.⁵

Wall-mounted cabinets in public hallways also have to meet the 2010 ADA Standards. Under Section 307, a wall-mounted object with a leading edge between 27 and 80 inches above the floor cannot protrude more than 4 inches into a circulation path, and the cabinet handle must sit between 15 and 48 inches above the floor to stay within ADA reach ranges.⁸ A cabinet that protrudes further must be recessed into the wall or mounted with its bottom edge no higher than 27 inches from the floor. In multi-floor buildings, placing units near elevators or stairwells helps cover every level, and large venues may need multiple devices to keep response distances short.

Liability Protection You Gain, and Can Lose

Public Health Law 3000-a provides two layers of protection. Anyone who voluntarily provides emergency treatment outside a medical facility is shielded from civil liability unless the conduct amounts to gross negligence. Separately, any person or business that purchases, operates, or makes an AED available as required by law is not liable for damages from its emergency use, as long as the business itself was not negligent or grossly negligent in running the program. The protection also extends to the collaborating emergency health care provider.⁹

The qualifier is where businesses get hurt. Skip the collaborative agreement, let certifications lapse, or leave a dead battery in place for two years, and the immunity can evaporate. A negligence claim tied to a device that failed because nobody checked it is much harder to defend.

Federal law adds another layer under 42 U.S.C. 238q. Anyone who uses or attempts to use an AED on a person experiencing a perceived medical emergency is immune from civil liability. The business that acquired the device also gets immunity, but only if it notified local emergency responders of the device’s location within a reasonable time, properly maintained and tested it, and trained any employee or agent who ended up using it. Federal immunity does not cover willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless conduct, or conscious indifference, and it does not apply to licensed health professionals acting within their duties or to hospitals and clinics whose core purpose is direct patient care. The federal statute functions as a floor, stepping in where a state has not already provided equivalent or stronger protection.¹⁰

Penalties for Noncompliance

Health clubs that violate General Business Law 627-a fall under the broader penalty provision in General Business Law 629, which authorizes a civil fine of up to $2,500 for each violation.¹¹ Each day of noncompliance or each separate deficiency can count as its own violation, so exposure builds quickly.

School districts that fail to comply with Education Law 917 may face administrative penalties from the State Education Department and substantial liability exposure if a student or staff member suffers cardiac arrest without a functioning AED available. Desha’s Law adds cardiac arrest emergency response plans and AHA-standard maintenance to the compliance list, and enforcement scrutiny is expected to follow.

The indirect costs matter too. A business required by law to have an AED that either lacks one or fails to maintain it may find its general liability insurer denying coverage for a related claim on the ground that the business failed a legal obligation. The Department of Health and local agencies enforce these requirements through inspections and complaint investigations.

If You’re Not Required to Have One

Many New York workplaces fall outside the mandatory categories. OSHA does not require AEDs in most workplaces, and 29 CFR 1910.151, the general first-aid standard, says nothing about defibrillators specifically.¹² The agency does encourage voluntary programs.¹³

Once a device is in place, though, the same New York rules apply whether the program is mandatory or voluntary. You still need a collaborative agreement under PHL 3000-b, trained operators, a maintenance protocol, and proper signage. The liability protections also cover voluntary programs, but only if you follow through on training and upkeep. Buying the device is the easy part; the ongoing compliance work is what keeps the legal shield in place.

1
New York State Department of State Division of Licensing Services. Health Club Services Financial Requirements
2
New York State Department of Health. Section 225 of the New York State Public Health Law – Public Health Council
3
New York State Education Department. Deshas Law – Cardiac Arrest Emergency Response Plans
4
New York State Senate. New York Public Health Law 3000-F
5
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Automated External Defibrillator AED Local Law 20 Fact Sheet
6
New York State Senate. New York Public Health Law 3000-B – Automated External Defibrillators Public Access Providers
7
American Heart Association CPR and First Aid. Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED Course Options
8
U.S. Department of Justice. 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design
9
New York State Senate. New York Public Health Law 3000-A – Emergency Medical Treatment
10
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Public Law 106-505
11
New York State Senate. New York General Business Law 629 – Violations
12
eCFR. 29 CFR 1910.151 – Medical Services and First Aid
13
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Automated External Defibrillators AEDs in the Workplace