The District Weekly for October 20, 2021
October 20, 2021 (Archivo de mensajes en español)
Hello BPS101 Families-
As communicated in last week’s message, BPS101 is partnering with SHIELD Illinois (University of Illinois) to provide optional, weekly PCR screening testing to students in grades K-5. Thank you for your willingness to be a part of this program. Your response has exceeded our expectations.
The School District is offering this screening test, but consent for testing is completely voluntary and will not be administered unless you indicate that you wish for your student to participate. If you would like to be a part of this program by opting-in to weekly PCR testing for your K-5 students, please log in to the web-based PowerSchool portal (not the app) and click the “SHIELD Opt-In” link under “Quick Actions” on the homepage for each of your K-5 students that you would like to opt-in.
District and school leaders are working with SHIELD to develop the most efficient protocols to reduce time while maintaining the effectiveness of the testing. Each building will have slightly different schedules and procedures. We plan to begin testing on Tuesday, October 26.
We may have to skip grades and/or schools initially as we create efficiency in the process, so please understand that this is a work in process. Until we begin working through the schools, and the number of students that have opted-in, we will not be able to give exact screening times by school.
Tentative BPS101 2021-22 SHIELD Screening Schedule
East Side Schools = Beginning Tuesday mornings (Starting October 26th)
West Side Schools = Beginning Wednesday mornings (Starting October 27th)
This video shows what the students will do to submit their samples.
Below are links to some general information and frequently asked questions about SHIELD testing. Additional FAQs have been added since last week based on questions we have received via help@bps101.net. Additional details and information about SHIELD testing will be shared in the coming weeks and throughout the school year as updates are made to the program.
More to come next week.
-BPS101
