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Boise State Public Radio News is here to keep you current on the news surrounding COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Idaho Schools Wait On Rapid Tests And Promised Funding For COVID-19 Testing

Emmett School District
Crush the Curve went to Emmett High School last Friday to administer testing for the hundreds of students and few staff members in quarantine due to COVID-19. The district says the testing was to "obtain data for better decision making."

Governor Brad Little said during a press conference last week that rapid tests, which produce results in 15 minutes, will soon be available for testing Idaho’s school teachers and staff. But more than a month into the school year, districts have been waiting for testing options promised by the state.

Opening schools was one of Gov. Little’s top priorities over the summer. Testing, he said, would be a big part of that. 

“I would love, before we went back to school, to have a saliva test for every, at a minimum, every school teacher," Little said during a May press conference. 

In July, his office dedicated $21 million federal funds to test teachers and staff if insurance wouldn’t cover the cost or if staff members are uninsured. Those funds only made their way from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to local health districts late last week.

“The main thing we're hearing from districts is that they know that there's dollars set aside for testing -- they've been told that for months now -- and they don't know where those dollars are,” said Tina Upson, the executive director of Crush the Curve, an organization that’s provided testing to individuals, businesses and long-term care centers in Idaho. 

In the meantime, school districts have begun taking testing on themselves, Upson said. Crush the Curve has contracts with several schools to manage testing in a variety of ways. Sometimes the team teaches school nurses how to administer COVID-19 tests and gives them supplies to swab on their own. The Wilder School District, Upson said, has been testing teachers biweekly. And last week, Crush the Curve went to the Emmett School District for a drive-through testing clinic for students and staff who were quarantining. 

“This would give us more data as we evaluate our COVID statistics,” said Superintendent Craig Woods who requested the testing. 

Crush the Curve secured a contract with the state earlier in the pandemic to do rapid testing, mostly at workplaces with outbreaks. But its application to use those same funds to test students and staff in Emmett was denied by Southwest District Health, leaving the school district to pick up the tab.

A Southwest District Health spokesperson wrote in an email that it doesn’t have the resources to fund mass testing for students at this time. As with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health district says students or staff exposed to someone who tested positive should quarantine for 14 days, whether they receive a negative test result or not. That’s because COVID-19 infections can develop up to 14 days after exposure to the virus. 

At the same time, guidance from the Trump Administration this summer designated teachers as “essential critical infrastructure workers,” meaning school districts could require them to return to work to maintain school operations, even if they’ve been exposed to COVID-19.

Ultimately, school districts decide whom to exclude from school. It’s not yet clear how the results from the new rapid tests announced last week will factor into quarantine policies. 

Find reporter Rachel Cohen on Twitter @racheld_cohen 

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio

As the south-central Idaho reporter, I cover the Magic and Wood River valleys. I also enjoy writing about issues related to health and the environment.

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