Lower Merion School District: Update On COVID-19 Testing For Grades K-6

Press release from Lower Merion School District:

2021-10-08

On October 8, 2021, Terry Quinlan, LMSD's Lead Supervisor of School Health and Student Safety, shared the update below on the state-sponsored Concentric by Ginkgo COVID-19 pool testing program, as well as on LMSD's ability to rapid-test students in grades K-6 for COVID-19.

POOL TESTING

Although LMSD had hoped to begin the pool testing next week, we have decided to pause the program for several reasons.

First, we did not reach the 60% threshold of consents in any school for students to participate. Lower levels of participation will not yield an accurate picture of COVID-19 infection in our schools.

Second, the staffing support that had been promised to augment our nurses in implementing the program was not satisfactory. We need to weigh the value of the pool testing program and its demands on our staff against their ongoing work on our other mitigation efforts across the District, including contact tracing, testing out of quarantine, testing vaccinated students who are identified as close contacts and testing students who become ill at school.

Third, it appears that vaccines are likely to be available for ages 5-11 in just a few weeks and that boosters are or will be available for other ages in the next month. Therefore, it seems prudent to devote more of our limited time and resources towards providing vaccination opportunities for our students and staff, rather than ramping up the pool testing program, which will quickly become less useful as more children are vaccinated.

RAPID TESTING

With parent/guardian consent, LMSD will continue to administer rapid tests in the following situations:

the daily screener.

Because getting a test in school is likely more convenient than finding an outside test center and waiting for results, I urge you to complete the two steps needed for your child to undergo testing.

PowerSchool Parent Portal https://register.pennrapidtest.org/

Thank you for participating in our rapid testing program and helping to keep our school community safe.

This press release was produced by Lower Merion School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.