Important Surveillance Testing Information

September 20, 2021

Dear Hastings School Community,

The Hastings on Hudson UFSD is committed to providing a safe and healthy school community. As outlined in our COVID-19 Management Document — 2021-22, we have a multi-tiered system to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We now are launching one of the noted strategies: an optional surveillance testing program, conducted in partnership with Westchester County Department of Health and Quadrant Biosciences.

Surveillance Testing Program Overview

Attributes of the 2021-22 Surveillance Testing Program include:

The program is a partnership of the Westchester County Department of Health (WCDOH), Quadrant Biosciences, and Westchester Medical Center.
The program uses the Clarifi COVID-19 test, which is the most sensitive saliva test on the market and has been administered over 2 million times to college and K-12 students in New York State. The Clarifi COVID-19 test involves a simple, painless saliva swab, as shown in this short video.
Testing will be self-administered by students in school, during school hours. It will be overseen by Westchester Medical Center staff. It is easily done by children of all ages.
Twenty percent of all participating students and staff members will be tested on a weekly basis.
Participation in surveillance testing is optional for students and vaccinated staff, but is strongly recommended.
Test results will be available within 24-48 hours.
Families will be able to obtain their personal results through a secure portal.
All positive cases will be reported to families and the WCDOH for contact tracing purposes.

Anticipated Timeline for Testing Program Implementation

September 22th - 29th: Consent and registration (three-step, online process)
October 4th - October 5th: The District performs gateway or baseline testing for all consenting students and staff.
October 18th: First round of surveillance testing to begin.

The Testing Procedure

Testing will take place weekly at the Hillside School and the Farragut Complex. The District is currently working with Westchester County and Westchester Medical Center on a schedule for testing of students and staff.

Once all samples have been collected for the day, they will be shipped by Westchester Medical Center to Quadrant Bioscience’s laboratory for analysis. Results will be returned within 24-48 hours and will be available for you to view by logging back into app.Clarifi-COVID-19.com .

How to Register to Participate

To participate in the testing program, you must first create student profiles at: app.Clarifi-COVID-19.com . When completing this registration, please check the option indicating that you do not have health insurance and do not provide your personal health insurance information. The testing is being paid for by Westchester County. (Note: You can register multiple student profiles under each account.)

Consent to Participate

It is necessary for all families to grant consent for their children to participate in the testing program and for results to be shared with the WCDOH. Please access the required Google Forms at these two links:

We encourage you to consider enrolling your child in the optional surveillance testing program. If you have questions, please reach out to either Maureen Caraballo [email protected] or Joanne Cipollina [email protected].

Thank you for your support as we work together to maintain healthy school environments.

Sincerely,

William S. McKersie, Ph.D.

Interim Superintendent of Schools