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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I would like to see (and DCPS does not seem to be doing), is testing of all of the kids in the positive person's classroom.  This way we could get some real hard data on how well the school's mitigation measures work.  And schools could make decisions about things like future quarantines and whether additional mitigation measures should be added, based on those data.  I realize that it is hard for DCPS to have that data now, since school just started 100% in person less than 2 weeks ago, but if we start collecting it now, DCPS will be much better informed a month or two from now.  And as a parent I would feel much more comfortable with all of this.  [/quote]

While I like this idea, I think logistically it's really challenging because DCPS's testing capacity is still ramping up. Plus, any child placed in quarantine, DCPS has to rely on families to get them tested. Families have different means to do so. I like the goal and would LOVE to see this data, but I just think it's not a reasonable expectation.

One thing that I think is feasible and I would like to see is for schools to send DC's Test Yourself kits home with students in their backpacks and encourage families to administer the test at home and drop off. They could do this periodically (weekly, twice a month) or in response to a positive case or multiple positives in the school as a way to gather info about spread. Obviously not all families would return the test, but if they provided a drop box at school drop-off, I think a significant portion would and it could be really useful information. And also make things really easy for families with limited resources in terms of getting their kid tested -- the test takes about 3-5 minutes to administer to your child and can be done on the way out the door for school.

This is how UK schools are accomplishing widespread testing in primary schools, and one benefit is that it enables them to allow younger children to go to school without masks. I don't think we are ready to lose masks yet (it would just freak people out too much), but I think anything we can do to boost testing across the district with help us make informed decisions about everything from quarantines to cohorting to masks and social distancing.[/quote]

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