By Betsy Finklea
Governor Henry McMaster recently issued an executive order that will allow the state’s public schools to do rapid COVID-19 testing of students and staff.
These would be optional tests and parents/guardians would have to sign a consent form.
School districts throughout the state have been mixed as to whether they will do the rapid COVID-19 testing.
Dillon District Four (Dillon and Lake View Schools) will be participating in the program.They picked up their tests last Wednesday, according to Lynn Liebenrood, Dillon District Four Director of Student Services.
She said that nurses and athletic trainers were being trained to administer the tests. They received the consent forms from the State Department on Tuesday of this week and are now able to proceed.
Dillon District Three (Latta) Schools will pick up their allocation of test kits, but are still undecided how or if they will proceed. Superintendent Dr. John Kirby explained, “We are receiving only 150 test kits. That is not enough to test all students who have parents who would want this test. Therefore we will be using the test for staff members only who need and want testing. The 150 test kits is not even enough to test all staff if they wanted a test. We have full confidence in our current local health groups providing testing for the community including our students. Being able to test staff would allow us to have immediate results rather than having to wait for up to 3-5 days for results. This in turn allows us to enact our protocols within 30 minutes for staff that tested positive and had close contact with other staff or students and keep the school operating as best we can.”
“Until we get all the details of the process, paperwork, etc. for being a testing site, we may decide not to test at all. We are picking up our allocation of test kits just in case we eventually to decide to test and, if so, just for staff. We will make this final decision at our January Board meeting. So the bottom line is we are still waiting to make a final decision to test or not, but are being proactive in picking up our allocation just in case, because there will be no more allocations later,” Dr. Kirby said.
