ALBANY - School nurse Janel Martinez and physical education teacher Bryan Seybolt saw the collapsed 7-year-old on the gym floor and rushed for the red device that's hung on the wall for years but was never used.

The automated external defibrillator helped restart the child's heart during that gym class on Feb. 6 in the Big Cross Street Elementary School in Glens Falls. It was the 51st save of a life with the devices in New York - and the 13th child - since they were required in schools in 2002, despite complaints about the cost.

Now, the New York State United Teachers union that helped a member create a nationwide movement is going back into the schools to make sure the devices are still ready for action.

“We want to make sure they are still housed in their containers and are functioning and people can find them,” said Richard Iannuzzi, NYSUT president. The state's largest teachers union, with members in schools statewide, will also seek to make sure the batteries are charged.

New York's Legislature followed Pennsylvania in requiring schools to have the heart-starters, thanks to the efforts of Rachel Moyer, a teacher in a New York public school who lived in Pennsylvania. Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia now require at least some schools to have portable defibrillators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“We're really picking up momentum,” said Moyer, whose son, Gregory, died in 2000 of cardiac arrest during a high school basketball game. “There was resistance at first on the cost. But it seems to me if they are going to pay for kids to have their own laptops, it's more important to have a machine to save their lives.”

Texas is among the states considering bills now.

In November in New Hampshire, Kimball Union Academy lineman Matthew Keene, 17, was revived with the help of a portable defibrillator when he suffered cardiac arrest during football practice. While his high school football career ended, he's taken up a new goal of making automated external defibrillators available at more schools.

Despite a Harvard Medical School study last year that raised concerns about the reliability of the devices, states over the last six years have required or recommended their placement in more public places, including health clubs, airports and shopping malls.

The initial concern of cost is easing a bit. The original $3,000 price has decreased with the volume of sales to as little as $1,000 for models used in small offices and homes.