The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) encourages the state’s public schools to use saliva testing for COVID-19 with their staff and has resources to support school districts across the state.
MDE leaders emphasized that the saliva testing should be voluntary and can be done at testing sites throughout the state. If requested, MDE could provide support to help test staff and students at school sites. This saliva testing is free to the school district.
People will be asked to run it through their insurance company only to trigger additional funding sources for the state. Large scale testing will be turned down by most insurance carriers. In those cases, the state will pick up the cost.
The goal of this testing is to help prevent people who are asymptomatic from spreading COVID-19 so that schools may be able to get back to hybrid or in-person learning quicker.
MDE reports that the saliva tests are reliable and in most cases, the results are available within 48 hours.
Once again, the Minnesota Department of Education is recommending regular voluntary testing of staff and students to potentially slow the spread of COVID in your community. See more recent updates.
