SEATTLE — Seattle Public Schools has canceled class for Monday, Jan. 3 and will instead hold voluntary coronavirus testing.
It comes as King County is seeing a rise in transmission, and the district says it hopes keeping a handle on positivity rates will prevent disruptions to in-person learning -- something some parents say they're concerned about.
"By providing widescale testing throughout the district, it's going to help minimize the transmission of the virus and we want to reduce intermittent disruptions to in-person learning," said Seattle Public Schools Media Relations Specialist Tim Robinson. "Some 80-90% of positive cases are asymptomatic so our goal here is to identify any cases before school resumes or very quickly thereafter."
While Seattle Public Schools has offered testing at schools for students who have symptoms or may have been exposed, it has not held a wide-scale event like this one before. Families should click here to find locations and register ahead of time.
Parent Randy Schultz says he was concerned when he saw the announcement -- hoping that it did not signal a potential move back toward remote learning.
"It's hard to be hopeful at this time because I think what's going to happen is they're going to do these tests, we all know this new variant is pervasive and they're going to use this as a pretense to close schools," Schultz said. "I would like them to use this is as- 'hey, testing is great, and we need to expand this and make testing more available to all the parents so they can keep kids home when they need to keep kids home.' Teachers can stay home for the limited period of time they need according to CDC guidelines, and we can target and narrow keeping people home when they need to be home and keeping schools going in a larger fashion."
KING 5 asked Robinson if this move could in fact signal a return to remote learning.
"No, that's not the plan," Robinson said. "We're just delaying the beginning of school after this holiday break by one day so more testing can happen but school resumes bright and early Tuesday morning-- in-person learning."