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Original poster

Do schools see results of Covid tests?

54 replies

Dustballs · 01/10/2020 22:06

There are kids at our school who've been in coughing, been sent home, come back coughing and not been tested.

There are kids not being sent home at all.

And yet 3/4s of the school is shut due to just one case.

Are schools allowed to see results of a Covid test if a student is sent home with a cough - or do they have to rely on trust?

OP posts:
Princessbanana · 01/10/2020 22:06

Nope

Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:07

Of course not, it is their private health information.

TheFallenMadonna · 01/10/2020 22:08

We are not allowed to demand to see the result.

StealthPolarBear · 01/10/2020 22:08

I don't suppose there's anything stopping them asking but parents aren't obliged to share.

Chewbecca · 01/10/2020 22:09

How would they get access?

Original poster
Dustballs · 01/10/2020 22:10

So parents have to work. Parents need their kids in school. They don't have child care. Children don't get so ill with Covid ...

That explains a bit more what's going on. Thank you.

OP posts:
Augustbreeze · 01/10/2020 22:11

Schools are requesting that parents tell them result, preferably show them proof. But they are not allowed to require sight of the result.

If you think this is wrong please email your MP.

AHippoNamedBooBooButt · 01/10/2020 22:11

My 2 dc had a cough, were tested, came back negative and both went back to school and neither school asked for any proof at all. I could've lied tbh and no one will ever know.
I think it is in our schools much much more than we realise, but until I teacher (or student for that matter) becomes really poorly with it, we'll never know

AutumnleavesturntoGold · 01/10/2020 22:11

No.
I know of one student off ill with symptoms. Since Sunday. He only got a test today. He's not been in but obviously he could have exposed people when infectious last week.

AutumnleavesturntoGold · 01/10/2020 22:12
  • still don't know if he is infected or not. So a week of exposure for everyone else of so
Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:13

But probably don't email your MP if her name is Margaret Ferrier.

Original poster
Dustballs · 01/10/2020 22:13

Having heard this I think all kids might as well stay in school regardless - untested. Efforts at trying to control the spread of this virus are a waste of time.

OP posts:
Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:15

I would have thought 99% of people would be honest with a positive result. Unless they were worried they were one of the 2000 or so that day who had a false positive.

Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:16

I think one MP said 93% of positives were false or something
It's why they don't want to do tests at airports.

Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:17

Or maybe they thought it was ridiculous to get a test for a runny nose and didn't even get a test at all.

Original poster
Dustballs · 01/10/2020 22:20

I would have thought 99% of people would be honest with a positive result.

Not round here they won't. In most homes both parents are working. We live in London and there's not many grandparents around/family to help. Childcare is scarce and expensive. Parents need their kids to be in school and can't afford to be off work.

They'll send their kids in if there is a loophole and an option.

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 01/10/2020 22:21

@Treesofwood

I think one MP said 93% of positives were false or something It's why they don't want to do tests at airports.
If you test asymptomatic people in areas where rates are low false positives are an issue although I don't suspect it'll be as high as that. If you target testing, either to people with symptoms or in settings where rates are expected to be higher (hospitals and care homes) false positives become less of an issue.
TheFallenMadonna · 01/10/2020 22:27

Julia Hartley-Brewer extrapolated from Prof David Spiegelhalter's concerns about the effect of false positives on the infection rate detected in random testing of people without symptoms (like the ONS sampling) to all testing of mostly symptomatic people.

TheFallenMadonna · 01/10/2020 22:28

Or what StealthPolarBear said.

Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:33

Wouldn't children with runny noses and associated coughs really count as asymptomatic? Young children are like that 70% of the colder months.

Treesofwood · 01/10/2020 22:34

Dustballs to be fair they also sent their children to school when there were 100s of thousands of cases especially in London, so they are probably not really very concerned.

StealthPolarBear · 01/10/2020 22:42

Good question trees!

JellyBelly78 · 01/10/2020 22:52

My school asked for proof of result, I had no problem providing it. Can’t see the problem.

Longdistance · 01/10/2020 22:56

I sent my dds negative tests to their school.
I work in a private school and the parents there either say it was negative or they send me their results.
I sent my results as I wanted dds back at school tbh.

Original poster
Dustballs · 01/10/2020 23:29

My school asked for proof of result, I had no problem providing it. Can’t see the problem.

That's brilliant JellyBelly. I have no problem with test results being shown as proof. Not at all. It's the reverse I have a problem with.

It seems that schools are not allowed to demand that they see a result. So parents that need to go back to work and have no child care can either refuse to test their kids or lie and say they are negative. They don't have to prove anything.

This may not worry people in less affected areas - infection rates are rising here though and my kids say others at school are coughing. I've already worried that it's not being checked. Finding this out tonight has worried me even more.

OP posts: