VILLAGE OF BOWLER, SHAWANO COUNTY (NBC 26) — The Bowler School District in Shawano County plans to offer in-school rapid COVID-19 tests to students and staff this school year.
The test, the Abbott BinaxNOW, offers results in 15 minutes.
The test supplies were made available free of charge to the District, through a partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Prevea.
The tests are voluntary, and students require parental consent to receive a test.
"This is a great way that we can exclude [COVID-19 as a possible cause of illness], so if someone is worried that they have been exposed, or feeling that they may be symptomatic, we can do this test," said Bowler School District Superintendent Glenda Butterfield-Boldig.
"Last year, I feel like we were really excluding students and staff that may not have [had] COVID, but we didn't know what else it was, and we wanted to be [better] safe than sorry," Butterfield-Boldig said.
Masks are optional at the district.
As of Thursday, 400 schools and/or school districts statewide are part of Wisconsin's K-12 testing program, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Schools may still opt-in, a DHS spokesperson said in an email.
Bowler students and staff who have any concern about a possible exposure or feeling symptoms may elect to receive a test, Butterfield-Boldig said.
"It really opens up some possibilities and helps people have that sense of comfort that we can have those answers immediately."
Of the five largest districts in northeast Wisconsin, all plan to offer COVID-19 testing on-site (Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Neenah, and Fond du Lac).
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is offering testing programs to schools around the state.
