Dear Parents and Guardians,
Our school has chosen to participate in Operation Expanded Testing, a program supported and
funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide COVID-19 PCR
testing to K-12 schools at no cost to the school. Participation in this program helps schools stay safer against the risk of COVID-19.
This program will help keep students in the classroom and prevent the spread of COVID-19 via
weekly testing for students and staff. This program is designed with a team of highly skilled
trainers who will guide all staff members on how to collect samples.
To opt into the program, please visit the following site: Link to register child for testing
The registration process takes less than 5 minutes. For a short video guide on “how to” complete the registration/consent, activate your child’s online account to view results: View Video Here
If you would like a paper copy of the parental consent form, please contact your school.
FAQ
Who will do the testing?
School staff manage the testing process. If students are old enough, they can swab themselves with adult supervision (13-17). Staff will perform the swab collection for younger children (3-12)
What type of test is being used?
Collections are done with what is called a lower anterior nasal swab, which is a collection swab about the size of a Q-tip that is placed just into the lower part of the nose and swirled around 3 times to collect the sample. This approach is much more comfortable and is not the collection method where the swab is placed deep into the nose.
How to do I see my child’s results?
The methods being used include pooling, which means that several tests are combined into a single specimen and that specimen is processed as one sample. This dramatically increases the ability to tests large numbers of people in shorter time frames. If your child is part of a pool that does not detect COVID-19, then you will not get an individual result (but the school will be notified that the pool sample was negative). If there is a risk that someone in the pool might have had COVID-19 and therefore every swab in the pool needs to be processed individually, then you will get a result posted in the Assure platform. You can set up your account preferences to send you a text message or an email when a new result is available if you want, otherwise, we recommend logging into the system periodically to check results. Your school will also be monitoring results for all students so they can help make appropriate
choices based on the results of testing. For a short video guide on “how to” complete the registration/consent, activate your child’s online account to view results: View Video Here
Who has access to my child’s information?
The consent form indicates that test results can be shared with the school and appropriate federal oversight committees responsible for tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases. This includes Affinity Empowering and the lab, Eurofins, as well as any other laboratories used to process samples. The information received is the information you or your school to help identify the individual testing. Affinity and the lab do not receive medical information from medical records, so we only have access to the information that is provided to us for the purpose of testing. Further information is outlined in the consent form.
