MASS. - To help improve staffing levels and in-person learning at schools across the Commonwealth, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that teachers, school staff members and students will be provided with two at-home rapid COVID-19 tests every two weeks.
Starting this week, schools can sign up to receive the rapid antigen tests for use by all faculty members and students. Schools that do sign up to receive these tests will no longer use contact tracing or participate in Test and Stay.
These schools will need to participate in symptomatic and pooled testing to take part in the at-home testing program.
"The current state of the pandemic requires that we adapt our efforts to meet the times, "Gov. Charlie Baker said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The state hopes the new program gives school districts more flexibility and more resources in COVID-19 testing to keep schools open. Staff will begin receiving the at-home tests during the week of Jan. 24. Students who opt-in to the program will receive the tests the following week.
The at-home tests will be shipped directly to school districts for distribution and are packaged in kits that contain two tests. Participating students and staff will receive one kit every two weeks to test themselves.
If an individual tests positive at home, they should inform their school of the result. Schools will report positive cases to DESE as part of the weekly COVID-19 reporting already in place.
Erin Arvizu has two children in the Worcester Public Schools. Both recently tested positive for COVID-19. She hopes the district takes advantage of this new program.
"Having at-home tests, then you can test a couple of times to make sure that they're still negative or if they are positive," Arvizu said.
Arvizu said her children prefer in-person learning, and is hopeful a program like this will ensure it continues safely.
"With all of this COVID quarantining, both of my kids have missed a lot of school, which is concerning," said Arvizu.
As Spectrum News 1 reported last week, the tests for this program will come from the supply of 26 million at-home rapid tests the state ordered from iHealth Labs. The tests will be delivered over the next three months. K-12 schools and child care centers will be prioritized for those tests.
More than 2,000 public and private schools participated in COVID-19 testing and DESE and DPH have gathered data about COVID-19 in schools
"The data from over a year's worth of pool testing shows that school is an extremely safe place for educators and kids. Positivity rates and pool tests are significantly lower than what you might see in the community overall," Gov. Baker said. "Even among a population that is getting tested more often than almost any other group of people, schools continue to see very small numbers of cases by comparison."
Students and staff individually identified as asymptomatic close contacts and repeatedly tested in school through Test and Stay test negative more than 90% of the time. As of Jan.9, more than 503,000 Test and Stay tests had been conducted and nearly 99% of them were negative, according to the state’s data.
Last week, despite elevated positivity rates in K-12 schools, the estimated individual positivity rate was still about 20% of the statewide positivity rate.
