LAUSD COVID-19 Testing Program

Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have started the 2020-2021 academic year with 100% virtual learning. It is unknown when schools will reopen their doors, but LAUSD has been planning for when that day will come. Most experts believe that we won’t have a safe and effective vaccine that is delivered to enough people to end the pandemic until mid- to late-2021 or even later. Meanwhile, the reopening of schools and businesses will depend on the 3 T’s: treatments, testing, and (contact) tracing. Treatments are left to health professionals. LAUSD is planning on addressing testing and contact tracing as announced by Superintendent Austin Beutner on August 16, 2020.

COVID-19 testing has been provided initially to staff who are working in schools, as well as their children who have been provided childcare by LAUSD. Testing will then be offered to all staff and students over time. There will be initial testing of all students to establish a baseline, followed by additional testing that will be “based on epidemiological modeling.”

According to a letter to the school community sent October 5, “Students whose families choose for them to remain in online instruction and staff who are not working at schools will not be part of the testing program once students return to school facilities. The students and staff at schools will continue to be part of a program with periodic testing based on advice from our science partners.” So it sounds like there will be an optional transitional phase of returning students to the classroom.

The details regarding contact tracing are not as clear. From what I gather, students will be required to use a Daily Pass App that was built by Microsoft and customized for LAUSD. Daily Pass will be used to admit students to campus and will also include a daily health check along with notifications for when it’s time to get a COVID-19 test. I don’t know if Daily Pass will include all the same features as SafePass and other exposure notification apps, but I can see why they would want to integrate contact tracing into a district-wide app that has features specific to LAUSD needs.

According to the October 5 letter, “After an initial, negative test and as long as an individual shows no symptoms, the App will admit that person to a school campus or district facility. If the test is positive or symptoms appear, then the individual will be referred to the appropriate health authorities for care. Read the entirety of the October 5 letter here:

Additional information is provided on the LAUSD COVID-19 Testing Program website. Finally, this article discusses the backstory behind Austin Beutner’s bold plan to ramp up its testing where LAUSD is the first and only customer of SummerBio, the company that was awarded a $48.9 million contract to provide testing for LAUSD.

It will be interesting to see how this program unfolds, as it will be the first of its kind for a school district of this size (LAUSD is the 2nd largest school district in the US). I commend LAUSD for undertaking such an aggressive and complex initiative to ensure the safe return of students to classroom-based learning.