Your help needed: understanding and promoting COVID testing in Alabama’s schools
February 4, 2022
A message from Jennifer McCain, MD, FAAP, Area Representative to the Chapter Board and member, provider committee of the COVID Screening Testing in K-12 Schools Alabama Collaborative Taskforce
Alabama’s school children need your help. During this Omicron spike, we have seen the rates of COVID-19 diagnosis skyrocket in children and teachers in schools all across our state. Unfortunately, this is happening as mitigation efforts have been relaxed in schools.
The state of Alabama has a federally funded sentinel testing program for all K-12 schools that would be helpful to identify COVID cases early in schools before there is an outbreak. Almost 200 schools across the state have implemented this program successfully over the last four months (click HERE for list of enrolled schools). The program has been introduced to all of the 1,200+ Alabama schools, but many have shown no interest in starting this program for a myriad of reasons.
We ask that you read through this information so that you more fully understand what is happening with your patients in schools that have implemented the program. Please consider discussing this with your patients and their families to make them aware of this program. We also ask that you reach out to your contacts in the school systems--nurses, principals, superintendents, board members, etc.--to encourage them to take advantage of this valuable FREE resource that we know would be so helpful to keep our children and teachers safe and healthy AND keep our schools open.
Our Program: COVID Testing in Alabama K-12 Schools
Funding has been provided through the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Reopening Schools Award. This program is focused on providing needed resources to implement screening testing programs in schools and aligns well with CDC recommendations. Alabama’s ELC Reopening Schools Award is managed via a partnership between the UAB School of Public Health, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and the Alabama State Department of Education.
In Alabama, COVID Testing in Alabama K-12 Schools offers free and voluntary weekly asymptomatic COVID-19 testing to students, faculty, and staff in all Alabama K-12 schools. The program will only test students whose parents or legal guardians have given consent and faculty/staff who have given consent. Rolling enrollment is open throughout the school year for opting in and out of the program at any time.
What are the goals of this project?
The goal of the program is to support and maintain in-person learning for K-12 schools.
How does the program work?
UAB's team coordinates a turnkey solution for COVID Testing in Alabama’s K-12 schools. The program works with each school to develop a unique plan to enroll participants. The schools have weekly visits from medical professionals to obtain nasal swab samples of students (K3- 12th grade), faculty, and staff to test for asymptomatic COVID infection on their campus with minimal interruption. The results are reported to the school personnel, families, and ADPH within 24 hours. Each school follows their district’s COVID plan when a child’s or staff member’s test is positive. UAB provides the connection and oversight to the testing vendor, who provides their own resources and staff for test collection.
What are the benefits of routine COVID-19 testing in schools?
Routine screening of people without symptoms will help to reduce the “silent” spread of the virus, therefore protecting students, teachers, and staff, and those they go home to every day.
Want to learn more? For more information, please visit https://sites.uab.edu/covidalk12, or contact the program at covidALK12@uab.edu.
