CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago Public Schools are beginning to lay out COVID-19 protocols for the school year.
The district announced it is planning to offer free weekly COVID-19 tests to every student and staff member next school year, but they are not mandating that students or staff be tested.
This is the latest safety measure CPS has announced, as the district continues talks with the Chicago Teachers Union over the return to full-time in-person learning.
In an email to parents, interim CPS CEO José Torres and interim chief education officer Maurice Swinney wrote, “To build on the surveillance testing program that CPS launched last year to measure and monitor COVID-19 prevalence among asymptomatic people in a community over time, we are committed to testing 100 percent of CPS students and staff each week."
Again, testing will not be mandatory and parental consent will be required for students to be tested.
According to the Sun-Times, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said the union received a different proposal from CPS that included a plan to test students based on community transmission. She told the Sun-Times the CTU would likely agree to the full testing plan, if it is put in writing.
“We need the maximum amount of safety going back into our school communities,” Davis Gates said. “The Delta variant and the lack of vaccinations for students under the age of 12 are concerning.”
The district still has yet to require students and staff to be vaccinated.
Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union are currently negotiating terms of returning to full in-person learning in the fall.
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