Yolo County Schools Receive COVID-19 Tests Ahead of Spring Break

Woodland, CA - In preparation for spring break, public schools in Yolo County will provide free at-home rapid antigen test kits to all students and staff.

This week, the Yolo County Office of Education (YCOE) announced it had received nearly 35,000 CareStart home antigen test kits from the state. The shipment of test kits arrived in Woodland last Thursday and was distributed to districts this week.

Each student and staff will receive one test kit with two tests included. Based on the recommendation of Yolo County Public Health, individuals should test three days before returning to school, and again the day before returning to school after spring break.

The rapid test kits will be distributed at public schools according to the district’s spring break schedule. Parents and families are instructed to look for communication from their school district about how test kits will be distributed to students and families.

In Yolo County, spring break schedules vary by school district. Davis Joint Unified has the earliest spring break starting on March 21. Woodland Joint Unified has the latest spring break schedule starting on April 18.

The results from the rapid tests are available in 10 minutes. Each box of rapid tests comes with instructions on how to use the test kits and submit results to the school or district.

While test kits will be distributed to all, County Superintendent Garth Lewis states there is no local or statewide testing requirement to return to school after spring break.

Lewis said, “As students and staff might be exposed to COVID-10 during spring break, we would encourage families to utilize testing to help us keep our schools open and prevent a rise in cases.”

YCOE partnered with the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency and the California Office of Emergency Services to acquire and distribute the test kits to local school districts. The test kits were provided at no cost to school districts.

In January, the state provided nearly six million at-home rapid test kits to support testing after winter break. All test kits distributed are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under emergency use authorization.

Additional information is available on the Yolo County Office of Education website at www.ycoe.org.