Assisting Childhood Education through Increased Testing

Statement of Problem

Please Note: If the expiration date on the box has passed, check to see if those tests' expiration dates have been extended.

POC Tests: BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card and NAVICA App Set-Up and Training | Abbott Point of Care (globalpointofcare.abbott) 

OTC/Self Tests: At-Home OTC COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests | FDA

Project Origins

Early on, COVID-19 made it difficult to keep kids in school for safe, in-person learning. Virtual platforms helped kids continue to learn when schools closed down. But as we saw, there is no substitute for schools given everything they provide when they're open. Besides education, schools offer safety, nutrition, and a chance to socialize. Schools are at the heart of our communities. 

At the beginning of 2021 CHOP launched Project: ACE-IT. We worked with local health departments and education leaders across the region. Our shared goal: To reduce the risk of in-school COVID-19 transmission through testing.

By now, most schools are back to in-person learning. And we know that schools are not usually where COVID-19 spreads. But we want students and staff to feel safe in school when COVID-19 cases start to rise in their communities.

Schools can use many layers of protection to make sure everyone feels safe. This includes offering rapid testing during times when COVID-19 is on the rise.

Description

Goals

  • Keep schools open for in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Build confidence that safe, in-school learning is possible during COVID-19 surges

Roles

  • Offer training on the administration of COVID-19 point of care tests and reporting of results

Strategy: A Public Health Approach

  • Project: ACE-IT participants have used rapid tests for:
    • Symptomatic testing of people who develop symptoms during the school day
      • Testing out of quarantine to shortening days out of school and preserve classroom time
      • Testing asymptomatic people after exposure while allowing them to stay in school
      • Assurance testing where groups of asymptomatic people are repeatedly tested in defined intervals
      • Testing before big events like proms, graduations, or performances

Please reach out to your local health department to discuss the use of tests for your organization. 

Accomplishments

The ACE-IT Team has:

  • Distributed over 1 million rapid tests from the U.S. government to interested schools
  • Offered training on how to use the tests and report their result
  • Provided support to schools as they created their testing protocols.
  • Raised confidence that safe, in-person learning is possible during COVID.

Next Steps

A new website is coming! Stay tuned for more details.

Suggested Citation

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PolicyLab. Assisting Childhood Education through Increased Testing [Online]. Available at: http://www.policylab.chop.edu. [Accessed: plug in date accessed here].