Santa Barbara School District to Mandate COVID Testing Amid Rise in Cases

SBUSD Currently Has 31 COVID Cases

“If this rate continues, we are looking at over 50 cases of COVID amongst our students and approximately 24 cases for our staff,” said Assistant Superintendent Frann Wageneck at the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education meeting Tuesday. | Credit: Daniel Dreifuss (file)

[Update 09/2/21] The Santa Barbara Unified School District learned August 27 that due to a national shortage of tests, it will not be receiving the full amount of tests for the district in time for the previously stated September 7 deadline. The district expects to receive around 5,800 tests in the next few days, and it will create a plan to prioritize the use of the tests until an additional shipment arrives.

The original story follows.

Starting after Labor Day, Santa Barbara Unified School District will implement mandatory COVID-19 testing for all K-12 students, with consent from parents when necessary. Students under the age of 13 do need their parents’ consent to get tested, while students over the age of 13 do not need parental consent but can choose to share their test results.