Also see: American Red Cross Chapter Info
American Heart Association Training Center Info

Date: March 2006
To:   Teaching Interns
From: College of Education, Office of Student Affairs
RE:   First Aid and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification

Legislation signed into law by Governor Granholm on June 10, 2003, (See http://www.michiganlegislature.org/documents/2003-2004/publicact/pdf/2003-PA-0018.pdf for a copy), requires that individuals complete a course in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prior to being issued an initial teaching certificate. Michigan State University, and all other teacher preparation institutions, must assure this requirement for certification is met before the recommendation for the Provisional Teaching Certificate is sent to the State of Michigan, Department of Education.  

At this time, only American Red Cross (ARC) and American Heart Association (AHA) courses have been approved to meet this requirement.   The specific ARC or AHA courses that have been approved by the state of Michigan, Department of Education to meet the legislative requirements, can be found here.

You can find the local offices for the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association by accessing their respective web sites at www.redcross.org or www.americanheart.org . Enter your zip code to locate the chapter near you and its point of contact for courses.  

Please note that you must take courses that result in Child and Adult CPR and First Aid certification. For those of you who are certified in First Aid and have been certified in CPR, you may update your credential by taking only the CPR review course offered by these agencies.

Each individual certified through MSU for the initial (Provisional) teaching certificate must include a copy of his/her valid American Red Cross or American Heart Association course completion card when the application is filed and the CPR/First Aid certificate must be valid through the time of recommendation for certification as a teacher.   As an MSU intern, you will apply as early as April and typically will be recommended for certification sometime between mid May and late August; so your course completion card needs to be valid during that time period.

An individual with physical limitations that make it impractical to obtain CPR/First Aid certification should so indicate on the application for Provisional teacher certification.