By Eleanor Love, News and Sports Editor
The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) experienced a shortage in take-home COVID testing kits to provide to students after the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) didn’t meet the district’s requests for test kits. According to SCUSD Student Support and Health Services Director Victoria Flores, the CDPH offered to provide take-home tests to the district for students and staff to use over winter break. It was a grant-funded program through CDPH.
In total, SCUSD received around 38,000 test kits. The district prioritized elementary schools first. Only 1,260 test kits were sent to McClatchy, whose student population is over 2,200. According to Principal Andrea Egan, McClatchy “did not receive near enough for all students.” McClatchy athletes who are required to test regularly were provided with kits to continue sports practices throughout the break, but the majority of students did not receive any.
Flores explained that SCUSD worked to obtain more test kits after initially receiving fewer than requested, but shipping delays impacted kit delivery. “We are hopeful to get more this week and continue providing these resources to our community,” Flores said.
The testing complications occurred as the highly contagious COVID variant, Omicron, spreads rapidly across the country – among vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. Tens of thousands of SCUSD students will return to in-person learning on Monday, January 3 after winter break.
The district has sent out multiple alerts to its families and students requesting that all students who received a take-home test submit their test results. It asks students who have been exposed, live with someone who has tested positive, or are showing symptoms to stay home and immediately get tested. “If you did not receive a home test, you may also access testing at school tomorrow in the Care room. Remain masked and distanced as possible from others until you get a negative test,” the alert reads.
According to Flores, all district schools have daily onsite testing. Testing is also available Monday through Friday at the Serna Center from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and at Albert Einstein Middle School from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. On McClatchy’s campus, testing is available in the pool room. McClatchy will not be requiring its students to get tested upon return from break, despite being unable to distribute take-home tests to most of its students.
SCUSD also hosts a number of vaccine clinics, and encourages its community members to get vaccinated. Children aged 12 and older are now eligible for a booster shot if they are six months past their second dose of the vaccine. More information about vaccine clinics can be found here.
Update: January 3, 9 a.m.
The Sacramento County Department of Education stated that it had not received a shipment of 248,000 tests it was expecting from the CDPH, according to KCRA 3. California ordered six million at-home tests from the federal government to distribute throughout the state. The shortage in tests has affected many school districts, including SCUSD.
This is an ongoing story that The Prospector will continue covering.