LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- After the first week of school, Jefferson County Public Schools has 63 positive student cases and 253 students in quarantine; 15 staff cases and 13 staff quarantines.
For the district of 96,000 students, JCPS Health Manager Eva Stone said the first week went well.
"We expected to see COVID. We expected to be doing contact tracing," said Stone. "Our goal is to keep COVID out of our schools and keep our students in school."
Stone reminds JCPS families that they can get tested for free.
"Please take advantage of the opportunities," she said.
JCPS is offering free drive-thru testing for all students, staff, and their family members, along with weekly screen testing inside schools.
"There are a lot of people who get COVID that really don't go on to develop symptoms. Screening testing helps to pick up on those people who may be asymptomatic, or they may not have started having symptoms yet, or pre-symptomatic," Stone explained.
Parents can choose to have their child tested each week. Stone said around 1,500 students had signed up to participate for screen testing; 506 tests were administered in the last two days; Stone reported the district "had very few positives."
Parents can also give consent for testing if their child is showing symptoms at school.
"That is something that has been a help this week for many of our families and employees who might have been having symptoms," said Stone.
Each week, a team at JCPS goes over what they want to improve, like reducing high contact areas, and what went well, like contact tracing.
"There's been a lot of parents frustrated this week because their kids have had to quarantine," said Stone, reminding parents that JCPS can vaccinate any student 12 and up. "That is one tool you have control over that can prevent your child having to quarantine."
The district will update its numbers every Friday on the JCPS COVID dashboard, which can be found here.
Parents can find the consent form for free testing here.
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- School officials answer questions about what to expect when a JCPS student has to quarantine
- Kentuckiana school districts navigate quarantine learning in first week of school
- JCPS students begin 2021-22 school year masked amid COVID-19 surge
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