Portland COVID-19 Testing Available For Public School Students

PORTLAND, OR – Students at Portland Public Schools now have the opportunity to be tested weekly for COVID-19. All that's required is that their parents opt in to the program.

The district says that since K-5 students are not eligible to be vaccinated, those children will be the district's priority. After those students are enrolled, the district will aim to get middle and high school kids on board.

After kids are enrolled, they will receive a collection kit along with instructions on how to provide a spit sample. The kids will then be required to bring the sample back to school the next morning.

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The samples will then be collected and sent to a lab for testing.

The new program is an effort of the district and Oregon Health Sciences University.

OHSU expects to give parents test results within 48 hours. Parents will be notified by secure email, according to the district.

"It's important for us to be here to support students in the state of Oregon," the chairperson of pathology in the OHSU School of Medicine, Dr. Donna Hansel, says. "It's important for students to be back in the classroom and to be able to do that safely.

"We also know that we can get ahead of any outbreaks by doing testing."

OHSU says that they will be able to perform up to 8,000 tests on samples from students each day.