School Letter about Lateral Flow Tests Consent after Summer?

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Hi, DD is moving to high school after summer. The school have sent an email asking if we give consent to do twice weekly LFTs. In all honesty I don't know that much about these - pros and cons. Would anyone be able to kindly offer me some advice? She has ASD although in main stream education.

Many thanks.

Pros are you may detect if she is positive without symptoms
Cons are you have to do the test twice a week.
Its entirely voluntary though so even if you agree it doesn't mean you have to do it if for any reason you feel you dont want to.

Will you be doing them at home?
My 2 have them and do them weekly when we remember

Get some from the pharmacy and try it

Parents of school children are meant to have been doing these tests since March :)

The school may introduce its own additional cons e.g. DC's school imposes some restrictions on students who choose (as opposed to genuine medical reason) not to test.

TBH I'd hoped we weren't going to be doing these by September .

Parents of school children are meant to have been doing these tests since March

Secondary age kids, OPs daughter is in Primary at the moment hence why she hasn't done them yet.

Pros will be you’ll know if she has Covid or not

Cons, I don’t think there are any? Unless you’re one of those who can’t be bothered out of defiance 🤷🏻‍♀️ Which you certainly don’t seem like.

They’re honestly no bother

Although they are very unreliable so she may have covid and a negative test anyway

@Hellocatshome

Parents of school children are meant to have been doing these tests since March

Secondary age kids, OPs daughter is in Primary at the moment hence why she hasn't done them yet.

Parents of all age school children (both primary and secondary) are meant to have been doing them. I appreciate primary school children have not been taking them.

OP said she didn't know anything about the, so I guess she hasn't taken any herself.

"
Today 22:21Thewiseoneincognito

Pros will be you’ll know if she has Covid or not"
Not really. If the test is positive it's a safe bet she does. If the test is negative, it just means the test is negative and you have no additional reason to think she had covid than you did half an hour previously.

Tbh I haven't been doing them either; just the kids when they are reminded about them

@UserAtRandom

Parents of school children are meant to have been doing these tests since March :)

The school may introduce its own additional cons e.g. DC's school imposes some restrictions on students who choose (as opposed to genuine medical reason) not to test.

TBH I'd hoped we weren't going to be doing these by September .

I'm in Scotland and it's only secondary aged kids here that are offered tests.

They are voluntary though and the school shouldn't be imposing any sanctions on kids who don't do them.

Here, the tests are done at home. The school don't ask for the results and have no right to them anyway. How would they know who has actually tested and who hasn't?

We register the results and I think the school is given figures on what proportion are doing them.

@Hellocatshome

Parents of school children are meant to have been doing these tests since March

Secondary age kids, OPs daughter is in Primary at the moment hence why she hasn't done them yet.

I don't think this is the case in Scotland, at least I am not aware I should have been testing all this time!

I'm also in Scotland and haven't been testing myself. The kids have brought tests home from school to do

Thanks all. Apologies I should have said I am in Scotland too.

So, perhaps easier to give consent now, pick up some tests and see how it goes? Can then withdraw consent if not working with DD - rather than the other way around. I searched for other threads - is it right there is a high false positive rate which means isolation regardless if test is correct? or only until PCR test confirms? Apologies for my vagueness.

If you consent are you committed ie. you have to do the tests - do they chase you to do them and log the results?

Thank you!

No, there's a high false negative.
If a lateral flow test returns positive you need to do a pcr but it's almost certainly positive.
Just realised I am in England so the 'rules' may be different

DS is moving up this year too. We have been given LFTs through school for when they go back. It's completely voluntary and it's very clear that's the case.

My ds with ASD does these quite happily twice a week. Though occasional false positives (we've never had one with 4 out of five of us doing it 2 times a week). These are quickly found out with a PCR test.

@Theonlyoneiknow

Thanks all. Apologies I should have said I am in Scotland too.

So, perhaps easier to give consent now, pick up some tests and see how it goes? Can then withdraw consent if not working with DD - rather than the other way around. I searched for other threads - is it right there is a high false positive rate which means isolation regardless if test is correct? or only until PCR test confirms? Apologies for my vagueness.

If you consent are you committed ie. you have to do the tests - do they chase you to do them and log the results?

Thank you!

No there is a high negative rate. If you did get a positive LFT then you'd get a PCR test to confirm.

You don't need to withdraw consent, you'd just stop doing them. No the school doesn't ask for results, you just log them on the nhs website

@Theonlyoneiknow

Thanks all. Apologies I should have said I am in Scotland too.

So, perhaps easier to give consent now, pick up some tests and see how it goes? Can then withdraw consent if not working with DD - rather than the other way around. I searched for other threads - is it right there is a high false positive rate which means isolation regardless if test is correct? or only until PCR test confirms? Apologies for my vagueness.

If you consent are you committed ie. you have to do the tests - do they chase you to do them and log the results?

Thank you!

The school does not have the right to the results. They should be logged with the nhs but even then you are not chased up. Know I have forgotten to log a few (negative) results.

It's a medical test and consent can be withdrawn at any time.

If done at home, which certainly ours are, the school do not even know if the tests are done.

I consented. The kids have only done a couple each and the school haven’t chased us. Most seem to have consented but don’t seem to be doing them regularly. I don’t know anyone that’s bothering you log them even when they do them.

We do them and log them. They are easy to do and only take a few minutes - longest bit is waiting for the result. The school do not ask for any details.

Easy to give consent (which in our school means the school give him a box of tests every so often). Then withdrawer it if you decide you don't want to do them.

I hope it's not necessary but glad the school are planning ahead, not reacting weeks later.