L2R’s spotlight series highlights some of the most comprehensive and impactful testing programs implemented in Washington schools.
Spotlights
Each Spotlight illustrates the ways schools have creatively and proactively addressed the many challenges faced throughout different phases of the pandemic.
Moses Lake School District
It was the end of summer 2021 and the delta variant was starting to surge throughout the US. It would be the most severe version of the disease that we’d seen so far, and hospitalizations were beginning to soar. The monovalent vaccine had been authorized for emergency use for ages 16 and up, but it wouldn’t be available for younger kids until late-September. The previous school year saw closures, hybrid learning, and divided communities.
This was the scenario when Liz Pray left the elementary level to become the sole nurse at Moses Lake High School in Central Washington.
The term “rockstar” might be used a bit too much these days, but when it comes to Nurses Carrie Dinwoodie and Ruth Erb of Mead School District, it’s hard not to step back and say, “Wow… what a couple of true rockstars!”
Lumen High School
When the pandemic began, Lumen High School’s Executive Director, Shauna Edwards, wished she could provide in-school COVID-19 testing for students and families. At that time, Edwards and her team were doing everything they could to help students access COVID testing despite the transportation challenges they often faced.
Waterville & Palisades School District
In order to keep the nearly 300 students served by the Waterville and Palisades School District safe and in school, Superintendent Tabatha Mires had to figure out where her students and their families could access reliable testing services. However, there was no testing available in Waterville and Palisades.
Read about how Mires and her team built a testing infrastructure that serves an entire community.
Edmonds School District
Mara Marano-Bianco is the Director of Student Health Services for Edmonds School District. She led the development of what started as a temporary, emergency program to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, but has evolved into a community-wide public health infrastructure.
What are the characteristics of a successful school testing program?
(Click on the characteristic to learn more!)
Student-centered pandemic response
Close working relationship with L2R Program Manager
Multi-tiered, inclusive testing access
Above-and-beyond mentality
Clear, consistent, simplified communication
Targeted support to vulnerable populations
Full team buy-in
Foundation for long-term public health infrastructure
Student-centered pandemic response
Programs center the needs of students, focusing communications, programming, and planning around meeting those needs.
Examples:
- Test program mission statements:
- Lumen High School: Stay open for in-person learning and provide a safe space for students
- Edmonds School District: Do what’s right for students and their families
- Waterville/Palisades School District: Keep kids safe and in school
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Multi-tiered, inclusive testing access
Testing programs look beyond the student body and engage directly with families and communities, offering testing that meets the needs of families and caregivers.
Examples:
- Testing access during school dropoff and pickup
- Drive-through testing
- Centralized testing options
- Distribution of take home tests for the whole family
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Clear, consistent, simplified communication
Testing programs communicate clearly and consistently with school communities, distilling the most important information and providing translated materials to families in their preferred language.
Examples
- Keep student-centric mission at the core of all messages and strategic planning
- Distribute information in a variety of mediums and languages to reach different audiences (email, flyers, texts, posters, announcements, word of mouth, connections with local clinics)
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Full team buy-in
Programs have buy-in and support at all levels and rely on the skills of a full, diverse team.
Examples:
- Support ranges from district leaders, to school nurses, admin, health screeners and teachers
- Includes buy-in from team members with direct connections to different populations within the community
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Close working relationship with L2R Program Manager
Testing programs have a strong working relationship with their L2R program manager. L2R Program Managers can provide support and resources for all aspects of your testing program.
Examples:
- Test site registration
- CLIA waiver process
- Onboarding the newest testing technologies
- Grant application identification, development and submission
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Above-and-beyond mentality
Successful testing programs consistently exceed expectations to keep students safe.
Examples:
- Driving students to testing sites
- Connecting students and community members to testing in larger districts
- Maintaining test-to-stay program after it was no longer required
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Targeted support to vulnerable populations
Successful programs implement testing and mitigation measures that ensure all members of the school community feel confident in the safety of in-person learning.
Examples:
- Additional mitigation measures encouraged in classrooms supporting medically fragile students, while protecting students’ identities
- Provided testing access at times that served working families and caregivers
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Foundation for long-term public health infrastructure
While each testing program began as a temporary emergency response program, they built strong foundations for longer-term, community-wide public health infrastructures that empower staff to combat COVID-19, other respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, and new diseases that arise in the future.
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