Become a Heart Safe School

Project ADAM designates schools as Heart Safe Schools once they have taken all necessary steps to safeguard students' health.

Becoming a Heart Safe School includes

1. Ensuring AEDs are available and accessible
2. Having a written plan and team of CPR/AED-trained staff ready to act in an emergency
3. Conducting emergency response practice drills.

What is the benefit to becoming a Project ADAM Middle Tennessee Heart Safe School?

• Being prepared to appropriately respond to sudden cardiac arrest on campus, increasing the potential to save the life of a student, staff member, or visitor.
• Uniting with other middle Tennessee schools to prepare for cardiac emergencies and increase survivability of sudden cardiac arrest
• Receiving recognition for your life saving efforts with a Heart Safe School designation, a frameable certificate and your school being listed on the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and Project ADAM Middle Tennessee website
• Heart Safe schools receive a template letter to send to the school district administration, parents and community to help raise awareness of this designation
• The opportunity to provide Information about any sudden cardiac arrest event at your school so that it can be entered into a national database. This enables your program to be contributory to statewide and national research on prevention of sudden cardiac death

How to become a Heart Safe School

• Conduct a cardiac emergency preparedness assessment of your school site
• Follow the step by step process for preparing your school for a cardiac emergency
• Conduct at least one cardiac emergency drill annually with your teams
• Complete the Heart Safe School checklist to be sure your school is prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency.
• Email the completed Heart Safe School checklist and a copy of each school's completed drill checklist to angel.carter@vumc.org, or print and mail to

Project ADAM Middle Tennessee
c/o Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
2200 Children’s Way, DOT 3209
Nashville, TN 37232

Heart Safe School recognition lasts two full years. To maintain and renew, your school should invite the Project ADAM Middle Tennessee coordinator out for one drill annually at a school of your choosing. Then, to renew at the two year mark, the Heart Safe school checklist and a copy of a CPR-AED drill checklist will need to be submitted once you have ensured your staff are prepared for a sudden cardiac arrest event.

Promote your Heart Safe School

Get the word out! Being prepared for a sudden cardiac emergency is an amazing accomplishment that you should share with your community. Use our resources to do the following:

• Send a press release about your school being Heart Safe designated
• Send a letter to your students and families notifying them of your CPR/AED program and Heart Safe recognition
• Plan cardiac emergency drills with your staff to practice your response and ensure everyone knows where the AED is located on your campus
• Plan an assembly, health fair or event to teach kids and families hands only CPR and how to use an AED

Special note: Project ADAM Middle Tennessee is committed to supporting individual schools wherever they are in the process of implementing a school CPR/AED program. Our Heart Safe Schools program focuses on the core elements of sudden cardiac arrest awareness, cardiac emergency response plans, and cardiac emergency response drills. If you need assistance with any of these elements, please reach out so that we can offer support and resources.

Below: Fentress County, a Project ADAM Heart Safe School system, recently held an all-school assembly and demonstrated the use of an AED to the students and faculty while also carrying out a CPR-AED drill.