SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Tuesday could mark another step towards getting kids back into the classroom. San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) unanimously voted to move forward on a testing plan for all students.
The SDUSD school board will pursue a contract with UC San Diego to provide testing for all students and staff on school campuses every two weeks. It will even include people who are asymptomatic.
The testing program is the result of months of collaboration among the district, the San Diego Education Association and UC San Diego since it jointly established strict health and safety guidelines in August. Those guidelines call for a gradual, phased return to in-person instruction and a robust COVID-19 testing program.
It comes as the district is reopening in phases. Right now, only elementary students with the greatest needs are on campus for appointment based sessions.
According to the district, students and employees throughout San Diego Unified will receive regular COVID-19 testing with rapid results under a proposed agreement with UC San Diego. But the district would still be in Phase one. Phase two, which is a hybrid school model, is slated to start on Jan. 4 for elementary-aged children and all students on the 25 of that month.
However, the district has said it would not move forward if the county moves into the purple tier, which is the county’s most restrictive tier, which it did.
The San Diego Unified Board of Education voted on the district's $5 million testing plan at its regular meeting Tuesday evening.