School districts face many questions when it comes to figuring out what makes the most sense for testing students and staff for COVID-19. What test is best? Is there enough money in the budget to pay for it?
Many districts are considering what's called COVID-19 "pool" testing, now that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is offering a free, six-week pilot program.
Pool testing is batching samples for testing in a lab. It saves money because "pooling" the samples together is cheaper than testing each sample individually. However, if a batch returns a positive result, then each sample must be tested individually, driving up costs.