Simplified coronavirus testing for K–12 students

Bringing kids back into schools and maintaining a healthy classroom is our top priority, which is why we recommend testing everyone. According to the CDC, children are more likely than adults to be asymptomatic, meaning they don’t show signs of sickness when infected with coronavirus.¹ Given this, kids who appear healthy can still spread the virus to their teachers and peers, so they all need regular testing. In addition, at the time of any given test, students, teachers, or staff may be presymptomatic, meaning that they’ve recently been infected and have not yet developed symptoms—but still could be contagious. The best way to avoid undetected infections and stop the spread of the virus early is to test everyone, and to do so on a frequent basis.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s public health experts recommend that K–12 schools test students for coronavirus once per week, with testing for teachers and staff up to twice weekly.² We can work with you to develop a testing schedule that works best for your needs.

It depends on the requirements of the district, but we recommend that everyone be tested. While vaccinated people have a much lower risk of being infected, it is still possible, and testing helps identify those cases.

Testing up to six samples at once allows us to reduce the cost of testing without limiting accuracy. Our pool size is large enough to be cost-effective and small enough that a positive pool may not result in class disruption.

Our nasal swabs are easy to use. They’re about the size of your everyday cotton swab and don’t need to be inserted deeply into the nose. We selected a more comfortable swab for our testing program. The swabbing process is so simple that kids can do it themselves.

Teachers and other school staff shouldn’t have to touch student swabs. Older students will be able to swab themselves, and ReadyCheckGo will provide staff members who are able to help younger children get swabbed. If students need additional assistance, we provide teachers with instructional how-to videos to share with students and “how to collect your sample” posters.