Newsom promised COVID tests for California students. When will Sacramento kids get them?

At-home COVID-19 test kits were supposed to be distributed to California public school students so they could get tested before returning from winter break.

But many students returned to school Monday, and districts in Sacramento County have yet to receive kits. By Monday afternoon, the office in charge of distributing the tests across the county said it had only a partial shipment from the state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans on Dec. 22 to provide free at-home testing kits to all K-12 students. This came after coronavirus cases continued to soar during the holiday week and as the dominant variant, omicron, quickly spread across the country.

“We will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our communities by making at-home testing kits available to every K-12 public school student as they head back to the classroom from winter break,” Newsom said in a news release at the time.

The California Department of Public Health is working with county offices of education to provide these test kits.

“Last week alone, the state delivered approximately 3 million tests to counties,” said Ali Bay, a spokesperson for the CDPH. “Another 1 million tests are currently en route to counties due to arrive in the next 24 hours.”

Bay said that millions of tests have already been sent to California families.

“Many others have been delayed by the unprecedented storms the country has seen over the last two weeks,” she said. “About 1.5 million tests are anticipated to arrive to the state’s warehouse today which will immediately be shipped to counties across the state.”

California has 6,288 testing sites, which puts the state at a little over 30% of all of America’s testing sites, Newsom said in the release.

The governor said 90% of Californians have access to a testing site that is within 30 minutes of their home and 60% within 15 minutes.

Testing will be not a requirement for re-entering schools but it is highly recommended, according to the CDPH.

Meanwhile, testing lines are long and at-home swabs are hard to find.

When will the kits come to Sacramento County schools?

COVID testing kits are going to be shipped to the Sacramento County of Education before being sent to local school districts.

Superintendent Dave Gordon in the Sacramento County Office of Education said that they received a partial shipment of the tests late Monday. They will be processing what they have currently as they wait on the rest to arrive.

The health department told The Bee that the county has received its entire shipment.

How will they be distributed?

The test kits will be shipped to the Sacramento County Office of Education by the CDPH, Gordon said.

Once the county office receives the tests, they will be divided and assembled into specific quantities for each school district.

The office will then deliver them to the school districts within the SCOE or have them picked up by the district.

“Whichever is quicker,” Gordon said. “Obviously, there’s an urgency to turn these around and we’ll do whatever we can to turn them around as quickly as we possibly can.”

How can parents get these testing kits?

Gordon said the distribution of the test kits will be up to the school districts and how they can be best delivered to parents.

“We don’t have a timeline yet of when these test kits will be in the hands of parents,” he said.

He added, “I think the important thing from our standpoint is for parents and the public to realize that it will just take some time to get the kits in the hands of parents because they have to move from our warehouse to the district and then to the families.”

It’s best to stay connected with your children’s school to see how and when you can get your tests.

How many are coming to Sacramento County schools?

The number of test kits that will be sent to the SCOE will be based on how many students are in each of the school districts.

According to Gordon, the SCOE will receive approximately 215,000 tests.

The CDPH previously sent the Sacramento City Unified School District take-home test kits earlier in December. The total number of incoming tests was deducted from how much was sent last month.

Do parents need to test their children?

Testing is not a requirement for public school students.

“The testing would be something that parents can use to help them understand whether it’s safe to send their kids to school for the safety of their own kids but also for the safety of other kids in catching COVID,” Gordon said.

There’s also a reporting system that comes with the kits, he said, where users can report their test results to the state. Gordon said this is not mandated either.

This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 2:32 PM.