State health agency offers schools support for COVID-19 testing when classes resume

Along with pop quizzes, math tests and English tests, Wisconsin schools will be equipped to give students another kind of test starting in the fall semester: COVID-19 tests.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) will provide public and private schools and school districts free testing supplies and connect them with area laboratories to make it fast and easy for them to test students, staff, teachers and families for infections with the coronavirus, DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said Tuesday.

“Our children under age 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine, and our vaccine rates for children 12 to 17 are still only around 25-30%, and much lower in some parts of the state,” Van Dijk told reporters during a news conference conducted online. “So this whole program is very important for us to be testing and detecting disease early in a population that is quite susceptible.”

The testing program is being offered for schools to opt in voluntarily. According to DHS it is being designed to make it easy to test a child who comes to school with a cough, a fever, congestion or other upper respiratory symptoms.

“Because testing can identify COVID-19 cases early, it provides the information our schools and parents need to keep their students and children safe and to prevent spread in our communities,” Van Dijk said.

In communities with higher rates of infection, the department will recommend periodic screenings for larger groups of students and employees. Schools may want to consider more intensive screening, such as before large school events, she added.

The testing is free to schools, employees and families. It will be funded by a $175 million grant under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). DHS is surveying schools and school districts to find out what sort of testing program they prefer and whether they will need outside personnel to help take test samples.