NOLA-PS Restarts School-Based COVID-19 Testing Ahead of Schools Reopening Following Hurricane Ida

NOLA-PS COVID Tracker updates to resume Sept. 20

(New Orleans - Sept. 13, 2021) – Today, NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) restarted school-based COVID-19 testing that will provide testing at 91 school sites this week to help ensure the health and safety of our school community, as students start heading back to school this week.

“COVID-19 safety and testing remain top priorities across our school system, especially since many families evacuated to areas where the resurgence of COVID-19 may be high or people may not have worn masks while cleaning up their homes, due to the hot temperatures,” said NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. “Testing is crucial now more than ever, because we want to return our students, teachers, and staff to school as safely as possible.”

In addition to providing high quality, molecular tests at 91 school sites, which includes Type 2 schools authorized by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), and multiple sites across charter networks, the District will also provide access to molecular COVID-19 testing at the following 3 school community testing sites. These locations will be open to all students and staff within our school community.

NOLA PS School Community Testing provided by CORE:
● Wednesday, 9/15 - Hynes Lakeview @ 990 Harrison Ave. - Testing from 8:30-3:30pm
● Thursday, 9/16 - Landry High School @ 1200 LB Landry Ave. - Testing from 8:30-3:30pm
● Friday, 9/17 - Abramson Sci Academy @ 5552 Read Blvd.- Testing from 8:30-3:30pm

Families and school staff are highly encouraged to get tested for COVID-19 prior to returning to school, regardless of their vaccination status. Families and staff should reach out directly to their schools for the date their school-based COVID-19 testing will be available.

Anyone in our school community can take advantage of the testing sites listed above, as well as any testing site provided by the City of New Orleans.

“Please get tested at one of our sites as soon as possible. By getting tested, we can help keep our students, staff, and their families safe,” said Dr. Lewis. “It will also help us minimize quarantines and continue to successfully keep the pandemic outside of our school buildings.”

With school-based testing underway, NOLA-PS will resume its COVID-19 Tracker updates Monday, Sept. 20 and the data provided next week will include the results of this week’s robust testing program. While COVID-19 protocols may have taken a backseat for many families in the wake of Hurricane Ida due to evacuation and power loss, it is critical that we test everyone in our system before returning to the classroom. We anticipate that this robust testing plan will identify positive cases, and it is our goal to identify positive cases before staff and students return to school. Our NOLA-PS families can rest assured that all NOLA-PS’ mitigation efforts will be implemented upon school reopening to ensure the safety of our students and staff.

NOLA-PS will also restart its vaccination programs as part of the reopening effort. During these challenging times, it’s also important for families to have access to behavioral and mental health services. Families can find links to resources at www.nolapublicschools.com/hurricane-ida-resources.
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