If your student is planning to return for in-person learning, please be sure you have signed up for a time to have them participate in the January 4 or January 5 saliva screening that is taking place at all five schools. All principals have now sent registration forms.
Community Consolidated School District 89 will be using a surveillance saliva test to measure the district's rate of potential COVID-19 infection and to identify staff or students who might be asymptomatically positive for COVID-19.
Students will be able to complete an initial test between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday, January 4, or 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesday, January 5. Please don’t eat or drink 30 minutes prior to the test. If you or your child are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, please do not come to the school for testing. The school will arrange a separate time.
All saliva samples are de-identified before being sent for screening. Only the district staff can match the test result with the student. Because each test must be bar-coded at that school, parents with students in more than one school will need to schedule a time for each school. Each family should bring a signed consent form (www.ccsd89.org/CovidConsent) for each student to the first test.
Cumulative results from the initial round of student and staff testing, as well as the next steps, will be available no later than Thursday, January 7. Anyone who has a clinically significant finding will be contacted by the school. The overall rate of clinically significant findings will be shared via email and the district website.
If the test results show that the schools can open safely, in-person learning would be available to all CCSD 89 students on Monday, January 11. This testing provides another layer of mitigation in the schools; it does not remove the need for other mitigation (masks, social distancing, hand washing/sanitizing, frequent cleaning). Students will still have to learn remotely if they are COVID-19 positive, have COVID-19 symptoms, or have been in contact with someone known to be positive for COVID-19.
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