Massachusetts schools to receive weekly at-home tests for teachers and students

Massachusetts K-12 students, school teachers and staff will soon receive free at-home rapid coronavirus tests to take once a week.

The new program, aided by a bulk purchase of 26 million at-home tests by the state this month, will replace the contract tracing and "Test and Stay" close contact testing programs currently in use. School districts that opt in to the state's new at-home testing program can expect test kits to arrive next week. Schools can begin to distribute supplies to students whose families have signed up for the program the week of Jan. 31.

"We have the tools to keep schools safe and open and will continue to work with superintendents and local officials and school staff to do what we need to do to make sure that school continues to be a healthy and safe place for in-school, in-person learning," Gov. Charlie Baker said at a State House press conference Tuesday morning.

Baker also said that wastewater testing data suggest the omicron variant of the virus in Massachusetts may be waning.

"The one thing I would say about COVID, generally, is you just never know, but it certainly does look like we are very much on the back side of the omicron surge in Massachusetts," Baker said.

The state will require the schools participating in the at-home program to continue pool testing programs and to test any symptomatic students.

Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley called the tests "a game-changer" that will let school nurses concentrate on identifying symptomatic individuals.

"It is now time for us to lead again and change strategies to adapt to the current conditions of this pandemic," he said.

Students and staff who sign up for the program will receive one kit, containing two tests, every two weeks directly from their schools. Students and staff who test positive will be asked to report the result to the school, which will then report the results to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

In a press release from the Department of Public Health and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Baker administration said other New England states, including Connecticut and Vermont, have already transitioned to using at-home testing as their primary defense against the virus and focused in-school testing resources on symptomatic individuals.

"This new option will give Massachusetts school districts more flexibility and more resources in COVID-19 testing that have the most immediate impact to keep schools open," health and school officials wrote in the release.

The Baker administration also touted what they're calling clear coronavirus testing data that show school buildings are safe. The data show that students and staff who identified as asymptomatic close contacts to infected individuals test negative more than 90 percent of the time.

"The data reveal that individual positivity rates are significantly lower than statewide positivity rates. Last week, despite elevated positivity rates in K-12 schools, the estimated individual positivity rate was still roughly one-fifth of the statewide positivity rate," the release states.