Darien schools to offer COVID testing to students and staff

DARIEN — Younger students will be able to be tested weekly for COVID-19 through a voluntary program offered by the district and state.

Families who want to participate can sign up through the district.

The testing is also available for unvaccinated staff. Gov. Ned Lamont is requiring teachers to be vaccinated or be tested weekly beginning Sept. 27.

Superintendent of Schools Alan Addley said on Monday that the district was still waiting on word from the state on some of the logistics of the program, including when and where the weekly tests will be given. There will be a bigger effort to get the word out to families once those details are finalized, he said.

At last week’s school board meeting, Alicia Casucci, the district’s director of health services, said they were also waiting to hear which which company they would be partnered with. Under the partnership, representatives would come to the district weekly.

“The only thing we have to do as a district is collect the consent forms for those who are interested,” Casucci said.

She said the district is not collecting any insurance information.

The program itself is covered using federal money and is offered through the state Department of Education and the state Department of Public Health.

The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests will be offered. It will be done as pool sampling, meaning 10 samples will be tested together.

“If, in that pooled sample, there’s a positive test, then my understanding is they don’t have to be reswabbed,” Casucci said. “They’ll be able to figure which person it was that’s positive in that pool testing.”

Results should be available within 24 hours, though Casucci said she’s heard of some people having to wait two days for the results. Even with that delay, the turnaround is still faster than it was last fall.

“That’s kind of why it makes sense to offer (it) right now than it did last year because it was taking five and six days to get results back and now you’re able to get them much faster,” she said. “It’s a smaller population that we’re really focusing on.”

Families will be responsible for testing on their own if a student is exposed to a positive case. People identified as being in close contact with a person testing positive are recommended to test three to five days after the exposure. The district will try to provide a list of testing sites in the area.

“We’ll be sure to have that information available so people can know where to go,” Casucci said.