Weekly COVID Safety Checks
Preschool, Elementary Schools, O'Maley, and GHS
Informações de teste em português
Prueba de información en español
During the week of September 27th, the Gloucester Public Schools will restart our Routine COVID Safety Checks. This year we are able to provide weekly testing at the Pre-school, all five elementary schools, O'Maley Middle School, and Gloucester High School..
Our current safety measures combined with these weekly COVID Safety Checks for students and staff will lower the risk of transmission and allow us to continue our regular, in-person school days. The more people who participate, the safer we will all be.
What are the benefits of our Weekly COVID Safety Checks?
Weekly testing can quickly detect, trace, and isolate COVID-19 positive individuals. This will help us lower the risk of transmission in schools and also help families stay safe and healthy.
Testing is quick and easy and is not painful or invasive
Participating in the weekly testing is free
The program is voluntary but is strongly encouraged to help reduce the risk of COVID-19
Guardians need to sign a one-time consent form for their students to participate in weekly testing. We will only test students whose parent or guardian has given GPS permission to do so.
Sign Up by Following the Link Below
Registration for Gloucester Public Schools Weekly COVID Testing
Click the graphic to enlarge it
Informações de teste em português
Prueba de información en español
During the week of September 27th, the Gloucester Public Schools will restart our Routine COVID Safety Checks. This year we are able to provide weekly testing at the Pre-school, all five elementary schools, O'Maley Middle School, and Gloucester High School..
Our current safety measures combined with these weekly COVID Safety Checks for students and staff will lower the risk of transmission and allow us to continue our regular, in-person school days. The more people who participate, the safer we will all be.
What are the benefits of our Weekly COVID Safety Checks?
Weekly testing can quickly detect, trace, and isolate COVID-19 positive individuals. This will help us lower the risk of transmission in schools and also help families stay safe and healthy.
Testing is quick and easy and is not painful or invasive
Participating in the weekly testing is free
The program is voluntary but is strongly encouraged to help reduce the risk of COVID-19
Guardians need to sign a one-time consent form for their students to participate in weekly testing. We will only test students whose parent or guardian has given GPS permission to do so.
Sign Up by Following the Link Below
Registration for Gloucester Public Schools Weekly COVID Testing
Click the graphic to enlarge it
How do Gloucester's Weekly COVID Safety Checks work?
The type of testing we are using is called “Pooled Testing.” Pooled testing makes it easier and faster to find individuals who might have COVID-19. Here is how it works:
Participating students and staff are tested individually once a week with a nasal swab. Most students will be able to swab themselves.
Then, ten swabs will be placed in the same tube, creating a group of swabs called a “pool.” The pool is sent to a lab where the whole pool is tested for COVID-19 at one time.
If the pool test comes back negative, all students in the pool are COVID-negative. In this case, you will not hear from the school. Parents, students and staff will not be notified if your pooled test result is negative.
If the pool test comes back positive, it means that at least one person in the pool is COVID-positive. In this case, all individuals in that pool will be re-tested at school. Individuals in a positive pool will be tested at school the morning after the pooled result is returned for an individual follow-up test. The school will contact every family of a student in a positive pool and advise you to isolate until the next school day when the follow up test will happen.
Individual follow-up tests produce results in 15 mins. If the individual follow-up test comes back negative, the student continues with school as normal. If the individual follow-up test comes back positive, the Gloucester Department of Health will guide the family on how the student should quarantine and be taken care of. Nurses from the Gloucester Department of Health and the school will also reach out to start the contact tracing process.