![]() “But it’s a concern about the testing too, and we’re trying to balance that and trying to keep our kids safe.This story also ran on CNN. It is obviously a concern,” Renediro said. Rendeiro said PTAs across the district have already begun working together to share ideas and resources, and she hopes to help spread the mobile testing van model more widely if it’s successful. “We do have equity issues in the district,” McKnight explaned. McKnight, who serves as a parent liaison for schools across the diverse District 13, said a middle school in the district with a higher poverty rate and a less-resourced PTA also expressed interest in beefing up its COVID-19 testing, but was struggling to figure out how. The school raised more than $1.5 million during the 2018-19 school year, according to city data, and it has a poverty rate of 12% - far below the DOE average of 73%.Ī person gets a Covid test from a mobile LabQ van in August. (NOAM GALAI/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) 8 has a PTA that can absorb the $500 cost. Rendeiro acknowledged that the mobile testing van arrangement was only possible because P.S. The in-school positivity rate is significantly lower than citywide rates, 100% of our school employees are vaccinated, and we have many city-run, free testing sites across the city. 25, 2021. (NOAM GALAI/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)ĭOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said “our schools have been among the safest places to be during the pandemic, and weekly in-school testing is critical to that success. ![]() 8 is located.ĬOVID-19 testing outside Lincoln Center on Aug. “If it’s not a real concerted effort to reach the parents, many don’t know,” said Cynthia McKnight, the Community Education Council president for District 13, where P.S. Some are unaware their consent forms from last year have expired Last year, 20% of all students and staff in school buildings were tested each week.įewer than 200,000, of the estimated unvaccinated 550,000 DOE students have returned consent forms to be tested for the virus in school. 8 reflects concerns among some parents that the city’s random COVID-19 testing program is too small. “My thought is if we can do this as a pilot and show it’s successful, maybe we can show how we did it with other surrounding schools,” said Rendeiro.Ī LabQ Diagnostics COVID-19 mobile testing van outside Grand Central Terminal in March 2021. (Pacific Press/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) Rendeiro said that if the van draws enough interest, the PTA hopes to bring it back regularly, open access to the surrounding neighborhood and share the idea with other schools. ![]() If more than 50 people get tested, the visit will be free, but if fewer than 50 show up, the school’s PTA will be on the hook for $500, Rendeiro explained. The mobile testing van, operated by the company LabQ, will be outside the school between 7:30 and 8:30am Thursday for its first visit. Public School 8, The Robert Fulton School in Brooklyn. (Joe Marino/New York Daily News) “One idea was to have this van, we would love to have it on a regular basis.” 8 parent and co-president of the Parent Teacher Association. “If only 10% are being selected every Monday, that’s a very small number of students getting tested on a regular basis,” said Jennifer Rendeiro, a P.S. The city’s program also leaves out vaccinated employees and kids in Kindergarten and pre-k. The idea for a mobile testing van came after parents at Public School 8 in Brooklyn Heights expressed concerns that the city’s plan to swab 10% of unvaccinated kids who consent each week - was insufficient to catch new cases and give families peace of mind after potential exposures.
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