Some Newton High Schoolers Will Be Required To Get COVID Tests

NEWTON, MA — High school students participating in extracurricular activities will be required to participate in COVID-19 testing beginning April 26, the school district announced.

For the past several weeks the city has offered voluntary COVID pool testing, but according to Superintendent David Fleishman the participation rates are not meeting expectations.

"Nor are they at the level at which the pool testing is significantly useful in terms of gauging infection rates," he said in a letter to families.

The state has not required that schools perform testing, but it has helped many communities, including Newton, Wellesley and Brookline fund voluntary pool testing to help ease concerns and track COVID cases in schools.

With COVID cases rising among young people and outbreaks in other towns and cities linked to athletics and more students set to return to the building April 26, the district determined it needed to take more significant action, he said.

"Therefore, we have made the decision to MANDATE TESTING for all high school extracurricular activities," Fleishman said in the letter. "This is a mandate not only for students participating in athletics, but for any students participating in in-person extracurricular activities."

Newton has had 4,155 documented cases of COVID-19, and of those, some 214 residents have died.

Since the beginning of school there have been 382 cases reported among students and staff both participating in remote and in-person schooling. In the past three months, 122 students participating in in-person learning tested positive.

Students will begin mandatory testing April 26.

"We recognize that this is one more ask of our students in what has already been a highly stressful and difficult year," Fleishman said. "However, we believe this decision is best for the health and safety of our students and our entire school community."