Test & Stay program set to expand to K-6 grades today

SPRINGBORO — Starting today, October 11, participating school districts will be expanding the Test & Stay program to include students in Kindergarten through sixth grade.

Several local school districts have been participating in a new COVID-19 program focused on keeping kids in the classroom. Last week, News Center 7 checked in at a participating school to see how the pilot program is going after it started.

The pilot program, referred to as Test & Stay, involves 10 school Warren County school districts working with the Warren County Combined Health District. One participating district, Springboro City Schools, currently offers the program for students in grades 7-12.

>> Humane Society seeks ID of woman who abandoned dog at shelter; Vets concerned with health of puppies

Scott Marshall, Springboro City Schools District Communication Coordinator, told News Center 7′s Candace Price that two families have chosen to opt into the program. Additionally, since the program began, Marshall said the district has seen progress and has not had a single quarantine among participating grades.

Marshall said they were waiting for enough data to be collected from all 10 districts to see what kind of impact the program could have going forward.

Prior to the program, Marshall said the district was starting to see a strain on school nurses.

“The problem our nurses were experiencing was just the amount of work with contact tracing [and] quarantining,” Marshall said.

>> Teacher’s passion helps bring ukulele music into Troy schools

That work added to what they were already tasked with doing as a full-time nurse at the district, such as dealing with any kind of injury, cold, flu, and more.

Each school participating in Test & Stay was provided a nurse from the county.

©2021 Cox Media Group