During his first presentation to families of the Beacon City School District, Superintendent Landahl announced that the Beacon City School District had entered into a voluntary program with New York State to offer free rapid COVID-19 tests to students and staff who want them. This is in an effort to get a better read of how many or who is positive with the virus but are asymptomatic.

These tests will be the “rapid” tests, which have been talked about as not being as accurate as the PCR lab tests. Dr. Landahl said that from his reading, the rapid tests are more prone to give false negatives, and that if it delivers a positive response, he said, the result will be taken into consideration. The District is using Avid Diagnostic Binax NOW tests that the New York State Department of Health has provided. “They require a quick nasal swab with something like a Q-tip,” Dr. Landahl described, and are not PCR tests.

Dates Of Availability For Testing

Testing will occur on Sundays and Wednesdays. “We do not want to interrupt in-person school to do this program, so we are targeting Sunday afternoons and Wednesdays for testing,” Dr. Landahl said in an email to the District. Parents will be with their children when they are tested. Testing was to begin on January 27 or 31, and may be delayed with the school closures and blizzard.

How To Sign Up For The COVID-19 Rapid Testing

This testing is only for healthy individuals showing no symptoms. This means, you could sign your child up for a test for any or no reason. School nursing staff will be conducting the testing. Results will be shared on the day of the test. If you are interested in participating in this program, the District needs your consent.

Fill out this online form to sign up: https://forms.gle/cxPjeBFLbCvLyjoYA

The Beacon City School District will create a random sample from the people who want to participate and who voluntarily signed up. Registrants will be contacted to set up a time.