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Arizona High Schools Add CPR As Graduation Requirement

A new skill is being required for Arizona high school seniors to become eligible to graduate.

Beginning in July 2019, every school must offer a CPR course and all seniors must pass the course.

“You’re far more likely to survive a cardiac event if you have early CPR,” said Ashley Losch with the Glendale Fire Department. “So, the more people that know how to perform it, the better.”


CPR was first offered as a high school course in Arizona in 2016, making it the 32nd state to offer the course.

The new requirement will lead to 60,000 graduating Arizona students learning CPR on an annual basis.

With the addition of Arizona, roughly 61 percent of public high school graduates in the U.S. will have CPR training.

About 38 people each hour suffer from cardiac arrest while not in a hospital and nine of those 10 do not survive, according to the American Heart Association. 

Administering CPR can lead to doubling and even tripling the victim’s chances for survival.