Florida AED Requirements: Registration, Training, and Immunity

Florida AED requirements fall into two layers: a set of mandates that apply to specific facilities, and a broader framework that governs anyone who chooses to install a device. Public schools with Florida High School Athletic Association membership, assisted living facilities with 17 or more beds, and dental offices must have an automated external defibrillator on site. Everyone else is encouraged, not required, to acquire one, and the state backs that encouragement with civil immunity for owners and users who meet certain conditions. Criminal penalties apply to anyone who tampers with a device, and any use of an AED must be followed by a call to 911.

Who Must Have an AED in Florida

Three categories of facilities face a legal mandate, each under its own statute.

FHSAA Member Public Schools

Every public school that belongs to the Florida High School Athletic Association must keep an operational AED on school grounds in a clearly marked and publicized location. The device has to be available during every athletic contest, practice, workout, and conditioning session, including sessions held outside the regular school year.¹

Assisted Living Facilities With 17 or More Beds

An assisted living facility licensed under Part I of Chapter 429 that has 17 or more beds must maintain a functioning AED on the premises at all times.² Smaller facilities are not covered by the mandate. These facilities are encouraged, but not required, to register each device with a local EMS medical director.

Dental Offices

The Florida Board of Dentistry requires dental offices to have an AED available through its office safety rule, Florida Administrative Code Rule 64B5-17.015, which ties into the dental practice statutes at Sections 466.017 and 466.028.³ A dentist’s failure to meet the office safety requirements can support disciplinary action under Section 466.028.

Registering the Device With EMS

Registration is mandatory for FHSAA member schools. Each defibrillator’s location must be registered with a local EMS medical director, and every school employee or volunteer required to have AED training must also receive written notification each year of where each device is located on school grounds.¹

For every other AED owner, registration is voluntary. Florida Statute 401.2915 encourages any person or entity in possession of an AED to notify the local EMS medical director or the local public safety answering point of the device’s location.⁴ Even where it isn’t required, registering the device helps responders know a unit is nearby before they arrive.

Training the People Who Might Use It

Florida’s general statute encourages every AED user to complete a CPR course or a basic first aid course that covers CPR, along with demonstrated proficiency on the AED itself.⁴ That language is aspirational for most owners.

For FHSAA member schools, training is binding. A school employee or volunteer with current CPR and AED training must be present at every athletic event, including practices, workouts, and conditioning sessions held during and outside the school year, and each person reasonably expected to use the device must complete the required training.¹

Florida’s administrative guidelines for state-owned facilities recommend formal refresher training at least every two years, which lines up with the two-year certification cycle used by most recognized training organizations.⁵

Keeping the Device Ready

The Cardiac Arrest Survival Act ties immunity to maintenance. An entity that acquires an AED and makes it available for use must properly maintain and test the device, and skipping that work can strip the statutory protection.⁶ The statute doesn’t dictate a schedule, so the manufacturer’s guidance is the working standard. In practice that means confirming that batteries are charged, electrode pads haven’t expired, and the device’s self-test indicator shows ready status.

The administrative guidelines for state facilities offer benchmarks worth borrowing: place the device in a secure, easily accessible location with clear signage, store rescue accessories with it, and make sure responders are trained on the specific model in use.⁵

Civil Immunity Under the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act

Florida Statute 768.1325 shields both the person who uses an AED in an emergency and the entity that acquired the device, so long as the victim did not object to its use.⁶

Conditions That Preserve an Acquirer’s Immunity

If you buy or otherwise acquire an AED and make it available, your immunity depends on two things: properly maintaining and testing the device, and providing appropriate training to any employee or agent reasonably expected to use it. The training condition is waived in three situations: the device gives audible, visual, or written instructions on its use; the person who used the device wasn’t someone you would have reasonably expected to use it; or there wasn’t enough time between acquiring the device (or hiring the employee) and the emergency to arrange training.⁶

When Immunity Doesn’t Apply

The statute pulls protection back in several situations. Immunity is unavailable when harm results from willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless disregard, or conscious indifference to the victim’s safety. Licensed health professionals acting within the scope of their license and employment are not covered, nor are hospitals and clinics where an employee used the device within their professional scope. Device manufacturers, and entities that lease AEDs to healthcare providers without selling them, fall outside the statute as well.⁶

What the Act Doesn’t Require

The Cardiac Arrest Survival Act itself imposes no obligation to place an AED anywhere, and it doesn’t require an acquirer to keep trained employees on the premises.⁶ Placement mandates live in other statutes: Section 1006.165 for schools and Section 429.255 for assisted living facilities. The Act only governs what happens once a device is in place.

Community Associations

The immunity statute names community associations specifically. Associations organized under Florida’s chapters covering nonprofit corporations, condominiums, cooperatives, homeowners’ associations, timeshares, and mobile home parks all qualify for the same civil immunity available to any other acquirer, provided they meet the maintenance and training conditions.⁶

The statute also protects associations on the insurance side. An insurer cannot require a community association to purchase medical malpractice coverage as a condition of issuing other coverage, and an insurer cannot exclude AED-related damages from a general liability policy issued to the association.

Activating EMS After a Use

Anyone who uses an AED in Florida is required to activate the emergency medical services system as soon as possible.⁴ Calling 911 is a legal step, not just a medical one.

Criminal Penalties for Tampering

Intentionally tampering with an AED or rendering it inoperative, outside of legitimate servicing, testing, or repair, is a first-degree misdemeanor. Obliterating the device’s serial number to falsify service records carries the same penalty.⁴ The tampering prohibition does not apply to the device’s owner or the owner’s authorized representative.

Check Local Ordinances Too

State law isn’t the whole picture. Some Florida municipalities, including Miramar and Parkland, have enacted their own AED rules that add placement obligations for certain businesses and impose local fines for noncompliance. If you operate a facility in Florida, review your city or county ordinances for anything that supplements the state requirements above.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 1006.165 – Well-Being of Students Participating in Extracurricular Activities; Training
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 429.255 – Use of Personnel; Staffing Standards
3
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R. 64B5-17.015 – Office Safety Requirement
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 401.2915 – Automated External Defibrillators
5
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R. 64J-1.023 – Guidelines for Automated External Defibrillators in State Owned or Leased Facilities
6
Justia Law. Florida Code 768.1325 – Cardiac Arrest Survival Act; Immunity From Civil Liability