FALL RIVER — Five Fall River area school districts say they’re not interested, at least for the time being, in a new state pooled testing program that will bundle, or pool, weekly nose swabs of students and teachers being tested for COVID-19.
The voluntary program will provide weekly batch testing to groups of asymptomatic students and teachers as a means of encouraging more parents and guardians to send their kids back to the schoolhouse as opposed to remote learning.
Students who have been learning exclusively from home on a remote basis are also eligible to participate.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced the pooled testing strategy on Jan. 8. He described it as a collaborative effort between the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Public Health.