CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago Public School system is changing the amount of COVID testing it will be offering after coming under fire for missing its initial goals.
The district, at first, had said every parent who wanted to have their child tested for COVID weekly, could get them tested. The parents of 29,000 students gave their permission, but CPS was only able to do 23,000 tests last week. As a result, the school system has faced repeated criticism for not meeting its stated goal.
Now, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said he’d like to get that number up to 40,000 per week by Thanksgiving systemwide.
"What I’m going to be looking at is, do we have enough children being tested in every school, so that we have enough of a representative sample to know that, you don’t need every child tested at every school. We just need enough of a sample to know that the risk is very low at that school," Martinez said.
With enough children being vaccinated and sample COVID testing, Martinez believes the number of students who wind up in COVID quarantine could be reduced.
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Currently, about 89 percent of CPS staff are vaccinated, and 47 percent of students 12 and older are vaccinated, according to district data.
Martinez said about 200 students per week have tested positive for COVID systemwide, which he said shows schools are very safe. There are about 330,000 students in CPS, according to district data.
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