The Los Angeles Unified School District, which is requiring all staff and students to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to school next Tuesday, began distributing home testing kits to students on Friday, Jan. 7, and will continue handing them out Saturday.
LAUSD, which has received its full allotment of home test kits from the state, according to a district spokesperson, is distributing them through the district’s 63 Grab & Go food centers. Distribution will continue on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to noon.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who had been in Los Angeles since at least Wednesday, was supposed to join LAUSD interim Superintendent Megan Reilly and other district officials to help distribute kits at Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School on Friday but canceled after learning the night before that he’d been in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a spokesperson for the California Department of Education. There was no indication that Thurmond himself had contracted the virus, she said.
In addition to taking a rapid home test, LAUSD students can get tested at a district stationary testing site, which will be open until 6 tonight and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. There will be additional walk-up sites in each local district.
Information about the locations and hours for the home test kits distribution and district testing sites are available at achieve.lausd.net/covid.