It's important to consider qualifications of those using the kit. I always recommend instructors to have CPR/First Aid training through ARC (American Red Cross). Even with no training, though, a first aid kit can be a life saver. Some important things to take into consideration: 

• Do you have resources in the school? Someone who is EMS in their day job, work in hospital settings, or are First aid/CPR certified... you should try to make everyone aware of who these resources are. Whether that's with communication in classes, through an arm band or t-shirt, pinned discord messages, etc. communication on who should be gone to first will help a lot. Also, if no one has any training beyond first aid, no sense in buying fancy contraptions you don't know how to use. 

• What kind of environment are you training in? If this is a park with no climate control, ice packs are going to be more important than indoors with air conditioning. If we are outside, stings and bites might be more of a problem as well. 

• How does the kit make it to class? In a dedicated space this is easy to make a designated spot for a kit, but when different instructors are providing for lessons, does it make more sense for budgeting resources for multiple smaller kits vs one large kit that needs to be handed off? 

• How do we inventory the kit? I highly recommend creating an inventory sheet of all the items in the kit so it is easy to compare what is missing/used. Having someone, or even a small committee, of volunteers or staff members responsible for regular assessment and inventory of the first aid kit is important. 

• What kind of budget do you have? If you have basically no money for a kit, this is going to impact what is provided to students. I try to give budget friendly versions as well as complete 'this is a bit over the top' kits. 

• What services are you providing here? Is this for serious emergencies only, or are you a catch-all resource for people with things like sunscreen, bug bite prevention, tylenol and other OTCs (Over the Counters), etc? A school practicing in a park with no pharmacy or store nearby might want to consider more comfort items vs a school in a building with a pharmacy next door. 

There are things about HEMA that I consider, personally, part of first aid through prevention and preparedness. Again, use the resources you have at your disposal anytime you can. If you're at a park, the covered area with a table is a great space to set up a first aid table--no need to buy a table and chairs. If you're indoors, water is available in the fountains. etc. 

• Some place that is designated for first aid evaluation. This can be a bench in the corner of a gym, a picnic table in a shady spot, a folding table and camp chairs... anything works as long as people know to go there consistently. 

• Access to clean water and handwashing. A jug of ice water + hand sanitizer is plenty in a park setting. 

• Coolers with ice. This is really important in the summer when practicing outdoors. People need access to cooling off when HEMA gear is so hot. Many people are not athletes and are doing this as a hobby, so they might not be able to recognize signs of overheating until they are well into needing treatment. Consider backpack coolers too, they're great and easier to transport around. 

• The ability to dry. Paper towels are easy and they can dry sweat out of eyes, blood off of a cut, etc. 

• A decent waterproof or water resistant container to hold your first aid supplies in. A hard case, a bag with some waterproof fabric spray on the outside, waxed canvas, plastic bags... anything that repels some water. It doesn't need to be submergible, but it does need to keep a sudden rainstorm from ruining your gear inside. 

• Buy items based on your strengths as a first aid responder. The easier to use, the more likely it will be used. 

• Replace items with better quality as you go with pre-builts. A lot of the bandages in these kits are garbage. Just know that going in, and use them up first so you can replace them with decent ones. (Plastic-y bandaids that won’t stick through mild sweat vs Curad Ironman with antibacterial ointment impregnated into the padding is what I use and I really like them. Curad, hire me as a spokesperson plz.) 

• Keep some convenience items on hand because it’s cheaper to provide preventative aid than to deal with the fallout of an actual injury or issue. (Ex. Powdered pedialyte or gatorade + water bottles are more versatile and will be easier to hand out to people vs buying actual gatorade bottles each time.) 

There are a lot of decent first aid kits out there pre-made! If you just need something to ensure safety, don't put too much effort into creating a custom kit for just the basics. Making a kit from scratch means you kind of have to know what all you'll want in a kit, which might not be anyone's wheelhouse, and a pre-built kit can alleviate that on some of the bigger issues. Another positive of pre-built kits are that they are cheaper to buy than individual items most of the time if the kit has most of the things you need. The cons are that you have to weed-out the fluff yourself. A lot of kits come with "fluff" items to increase the item count inside of them to make them sound more appealing and safe. You also run the risk of buying low quality items on things that Matter for quality. 100 bandaids that hardly stick to a sweaty bleeding finger aren't really that great, afterall. 

Don't choose kits that are the size of your palm but state they have 3000 items in it. The item count is Not important, what is in the kit is. Conversely, you don't need a $500 kit with 10 emergency blankets that might keep dollar store Bear Grylls alive for weeks in the tundra. Generally speaking, I find a really nice HEMA first aid kit will cost about $200-300 and a budget kit will cost around $50-100, and schools should strive to put $10-20 aside each month to refill the kit and improve it with time. 

There isn't a single first aid kit that is built perfectly for HEMA, so instead of looking for perfection, look for ones that check a lot of your boxes and augment it from there. 

TLDR recommendation: Buy a decent boo-boo kit, buy a trauma kit that augments that for emergencies, and cherry-pick what your school needs from the build-a-kit sections from there. 

This is a screenshot I took of an expensive and garbage first aid kit. 

Notice the price tag - $90 "on discount". It's advertising a whole 415 pieces! Fun for the whole family, surely! It's not the Worst kit ever made, but it certainly isn't going to give you much bang for your buck at $90 for a lot of items purchased for pennies. 

We get Nothing of the quality of the items inside. I put red stars on the items that are complete junk to include, and yellow stars on the items that are kind of okay but all of these starred items are really there just fluff up the package some.. and I apparently at some point in time just gave up because really, do we need 6 "anti-itch" in our $90 pack? 

Whistles, penlights, stethoscopes... we likely don't need these. They're tools, but we might as well be putting tactical shovels in our kits if we're just adding tools for the sake of it. Even more of these items are useless if your school trains indoors. 

Only $30! Seems pretty affordable, right? 155 pieces for that price, eh? eh?? 

Notice the 12 safety pins and q-tips padding the counts, a whistle, again with the pocket CPR items... We just don't need all of this stuff in what is basically a boo-boo's only kit. The hypoallergenic tape is a nice touch, honestly, but this is just a lot of fluff. At the end of the day, this just isn't a good bang for your buck. 

Link provided here. 

$40, not a hard ask. This is a boo-boo kit. It's not pretending to be much more. But it still provides a lot! A hard case with a gasket to protect the items inside, this is mostly comfort items with a few trauma helpers, but this was thoughtfully laid out and easy to inventory and understand what is supposed to be in each section. It is easy to transport, those cubbies can be customized later too. It is a huge step up for more useful items inside. For a school that is indoors without many certified folks, this is plenty to help students help themselves and it is easy for volunteers to inventory later. 

Rhino Rescue also makes a similar version of this, and is a solid company. 

Link provided here. 

$90, only $10 more than the garbage kit from example 1. This is a compact "I don't know what we're doing but we need a first aid kit" buy it and call it a day item. Again, we have lots of labeling, easy to find everything, and tough fabric. But Krys, you're saying.. this kit includes all that "fluff" from example 1. Sure, it has the CPR garbage... but it also has an Israeli bandage--something proper for serious wound care and can be turned into a touniquet in a pinch. It has wound seal. It has boo-boo items and it has serious trauma mixed into one solid tiny kit. It ain't perfect, but for $90, if you don't want to think about this anymore, this is decent to buy and be on your way. 

If your school is basically like "I want bandaids and 'I'm waiting for the ambulance' only kits", my suggestion is use your newfound knowledge of first aid kits to pick a budget first aid box that can be easily self-service accessed by students + a Rhino Rescue Stop the Bleed kit and Maybe if you're feeling luxe a wound closure kit that you keep in the same area. The items in those kits pretty much never expire, so you can keep them sealed and feel assured they'll be ready when you need them.