COVID Testing FAQ

General Testing Questions

We are working with each school to create a consistent day and time for the testing teams to collect samples at your school. Testing will take place at school in a location designated by the school principal where social distancing can be easily observed. Each school principal will receive a notification from Thermo Fisher with the date and time and will share this information with the whole school community.

Chicago Public Schools has contracted with Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C. a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Employee tests are self-administered, but testing teams will include a healthcare provider and support staff to provide the safest possible environment for efficient testing.
Students can self-administer under supervision or have the clinical staff assist them with swabbing.

Parents/guardians and staff will receive an email with a link unique to your school and your role (student/staff), which will take you to CPS’ technology vendor Color’s website. You will use this link to register and sign a virtual consent to be tested. Please reach out to your school principal or covidtestingcps.edu if you did not receive a link or would like to request a paper copy.

The test will involve a nasal swab. It is a quick and easy test. This nasal test gently swabs the inner part of the lower nostril. The test will not hurt, but it may feel slightly uncomfortable. We do not use the longer swabs that reach higher into the nose.
Employees will self-administer the test by inserting a cotton swab into both nostrils and rotating it in each nostril to collect the specimen. The test will not hurt, but it may feel slightly uncomfortable. Resulting specimens will be collected and analyzed by Thermo Fisher.
Students can self-administer under supervision or have the clinical staff assist them with swabbing.

Positive results will be shared with the principal at the school or a staff member’s direct supervisor so they understand why you are going home and can put in place classroom coverage and the communications protocol as needed.
Results of the PCR test are shared with the person who tested, the district for contact tracing purposes, and state health authorities as required by law.

Chicago Public Schools will follow precautions prescribed by public health agencies. All testing staff will perform hand hygiene before testing and wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This includes an APR or N95 mask, face shield, gloves, and medical gown for healthcare staff assisting with specimen collection, and face masks and additional items for other team members. All PPE and testing-related materials will be properly disposed of once testing is completed, followed by additional hand hygiene. Hand sanitizer is available to everyone who participates in testing, and the testing team has access to a handwashing facility with soap and water.

Staff Testing Questions

Testing results will be shared only for public health purposes, which may include notifying close contacts that they may have been exposed to COVID-19 and taking other steps to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in your school community. Information sharing and notifying of contacts will be done in a way that protects your privacy. Sharing of information will only be done in accordance with applicable law and policies protecting privacy and the security of your data.

Student Testing Questions

Regular testing is a safe, effective way to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help keep our schools open for in-person learning. Many people with COVID-19, especially children and teens, don’t have symptoms but can still spread the virus, so regular testing helps find infections before they can spread to others. This is especially important for children under 12 years old who are not yet able to get vaccinated against COVID-19, families and staff with younger children at home, and others who are not vaccinated or are otherwise at risk for getting seriously sick from COVID-19. Regular testing will help us keep students in the classroom and allow students to take part in the other activities they love.

Testing results will be shared only for public health purposes, which may include notifying close contacts that they may have been exposed to COVID-19 and taking other steps to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in your school community. Information sharing and notifying of contacts will be done in a way that protects your child’s privacy. Sharing of information about your child will only be done in accordance with applicable law and policies protecting student privacy and the security of your child’s data.

Student email address - All students are issued a CPS account upon enrollment; however, students who have never logged in to their account will need to claim their account before they can access their email and other CPS applications. View more information about claiming CPS accounts on our Back to School Resources page.
Student ID - All CPS students are issued a student ID. Student IDs can be obtained from the student’s school or by logging in to Parent Portal (Aspen) and navigating to the “Family” tab.

Student Athlete Testing

All student athletes at district-managed schools in grades 5-12 will be required to either submit proof of their COVID-19 vaccination (if they are eligible) or participate in weekly COVID-19 testing at school during their sports season. Any child who is fully vaccinated will be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing requirement to participate in sports. Through vaccinations and regular testing, CPS can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among our student athlete population while allowing them to participate in sport activities.
For students who are vaccinated: To provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, parents or guardians must bring a copy of their child’s completed vaccination card to the school nurse or school clerk; the school nurse will enter the vaccination dates into the district’s HIPAA-compliant student information system, and the child will be exempted from weekly COVID-19 testing.
For students who are not vaccinated: Parents or guardians must complete the COVID-19 testing consent form that was emailed to all parents and guardians from CPSnoreply@cps.edu on Friday, August 27, 2021 before their child can be tested at school. Parents or guardians in need of another copy of the testing consent form can email COVIDtestingCPS@cps.edu to request one.

Student testing will take place weekly at every school, during the school day at a designated day and time. Principals, APs and other school-based staff will support logistics at the school level to ensure that students (especially younger students) who have registered for testing are notified that the testing team will be on site and are allowed to participate in testing during this time.

A completed vaccination card must be submitted to the school-based nurse or school clerk to serve as verified proof of vaccination status. Full vaccination is defined as at least two weeks after receiving the second shot of a two-shot vaccination course, or at least two weeks after receiving a one-shot vaccination course.
Testing completion and results will be tracked in the Color platform. Positive or negative results will be communicated directly by the Color platform to families using the email the parent/guardian provided during the registration process.

We recognize that a student may miss the school-based test due to factors outside of the student’s control. In these extremely infrequent situations, a student may submit proof of a negative test result from an outside source. Because testing is provided weekly at school, this process should be reserved for true extenuating circumstances and limited to once per season.
The student should submit their test result to the athletic director, assistant principal, or principal.

The team should plan on pausing activity for the day to allow the district to contact trace. Any vaccinated individuals can then return to practice/games if they remain asymptomatic, but unvaccinated individuals must quarantine. The contact tracing team will advise any unvaccinated athletes when they can return to school and sports.
Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 through the CPS in-school COVID testing program will be notified immediately and the Office of Student Health and Wellness (OSHW) will begin contact tracing. For those who test positive at a non-CPS sponsored test site, individuals must immediately report their results to cps.edu/covidresults.
In both cases, OSHW will contact the individual and any close contacts with instructions.

Vendor (“Supplier”) Vaccination Mandated Testing


: An individual is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks after receiving the second dose in a two-dose series of a COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use, licensed, or otherwise approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or two weeks after receiving a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use, licensed, or otherwise approved by the FDA.

Lab and Testing Questions

Tests can show a false negative or false positive, but most test results are useful and give families the information they need.
The test administered is a lab-based pooling PCR test, any positive pools identified through testing will automatically be confirmed using a single diagnostic PCR test.
The test utilized is a laboratory pooled RT PCR test which provides accurate results with high confidence even at low viral loads. The TaqPath Pooling kit has a sensitivity of 50GCE/ml and has demonstrated 100% PPA for a pool size of 5 (percent agreement, meets FDA performance guidelines (>95%)) in a clinical evaluation study).

Pooled sample testing means that two or more people provide specimens that are combined together at the laboratory where the test is conducted to detect SARS-CoV-2.
If the pool is positive for SARS-CoV-2, then the individual samples part of that pool are re-run and each person is notified of an individual result of positive or negative.
For the CPS testing program, a maximum of 5 samples are pooled together in the lab.

Because the sample is pooled randomly in the lab and not on site, individuals will not receive notification if someone in the pool tests positive. This is because each person tested will receive an individual result of positive or negative. If an individual has been exposed to someone who tests positive, CPS will follow contract tracing protocols to alert individuals and/or parents of next actions.

General COVID Questions





: Asymptomatic students who are up to date on their Covid-19 vaccines, do not need to quarantine. However, unvaccinated students or those who are not up to date on their Covid-19 vaccines, who are close contacts of someone who has tested positive will need to stay home and quarantine for 5 days from their last contact with the positive individual.

“Up to date” exempts an asymptomatic person from quarantine.

For people 18+, “up to date” is achieved by completion of primary vaccination series AND booster when eligible.

For people under 18, “up to date” is achieved by completion of the primary series alone.



: Our plan is to open school doors for all CPS students on Monday, January 3. We will investigate and carefully monitor self-reported cases of COVID-19 in all schools and will be ready to transition a classroom or school to remote learning if that is what is needed to keep students and staff safe. However, there are no plans for a district-wide shift to remote learning.
: Data has shown over and over again that our schools are among the safest places for students - with universal masking, social distancing, vaccination, testing, and transitioning to remote as needed. Most of the time, COVID-19 is spread in informal, community and household settings outside of school in which fewer protections are in place — playdates, family gatherings, community events, shopping outings, public transportation, etc. We want to keep as many of our students in school as possible, as nearly two years of research shows that school is the best place for them to be academically, socially, mentally, physically, and emotionally. In addition, transitioning to remote instruction in broad sweeps would send vaccinated and un-impacted students to remote learning unnecessarily. Unless there is a state or city emergency declaration, we have no plans to transition the District to remote learning.

COVID-19 Testing FAQs