How Pooled Testing Will Work In Braintree Schools

BRAINTREE, MA — Braintree Public Schools have partnered with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Department of Public Health to implement free COVID-19 pooled testing for students and staff.

Pooled testing involves mixing people's test samples together and testing the pooled sample for COVID-19. If the pool comes back positive, its members are individually tested. This increases the number of people that can be tested at once and allows the district another tool to regularly test for COVID-19, said Jean Afzali, the nursing director for Braintree Public Schools.

"We're very excited, especially if it means being able to offer more robust in-person learning," Afzali said.

The program is voluntary for all students and staff. Tests are performed once per week in the schools using a shallow nasal swab. Afzali said the district will launch a pilot program after February vacation for the pooled testing at South Middle School, Ross Elementary and the Monatiquot School Kindergarten Center.

If a pool result is negative, then all individuals within that pool are presumed negative. If a pooled test result is positive, those individuals will be notified and will have a BinaxNOW rapid antigen test with their school nurse, with results available in 15 minutes.

Additional information and consent forms for staff and student participants are expected to be distributed later this month through ParentSquare.