Communications

Clear, consistent communications is critical to building support for the testing program within your community. This page includes examples and templates to help you with each step of the communications process.

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Three Phase Communications Plan

For Educators and Other School Staff

Communicating about Positive Cases

For Students and Families 

Increasing Participation In the Program

Templates and Examples

Three Phase Communications Plan

Before Launch 
2 weeks before launch day

  • Host webinar for school leaders, teachers, and staff 

  • Host webinar for parents and caregivers 

  • Create webpage / send detailed email with program basics

  • Identify program champions within your district or program 

Launching the Program 
1 week before launch day & first week of launch

  • Send introductory email communications to families & staff

  • Post on social media platforms 

  • Principals/Directors send school or site specific communications 


After Launch
1 week after launch day & moving forward

  • Send or post a communication 1-2 times per week to update on program, share results, and increase participation

  • 2 weeks post launch: host another webinar for school community

  • Organize phone campaign to increase program participation

For Students and Families 

 

A short video to explain your school COVID-19 Testing Program to students, families, and staff. Send this video to your school community along the link to the permission form for your school's program!

 

Key Messages for Students and Families

  • School COVID-19 testing is one more layer of protection that helps us attend school in person safely, keep our school open, and allow our kids doing the activities they love - safely.

  • Regular COVID-19 testing can quickly detect, trace, and isolate COVID-19 positive individuals. This will help us lower the risk of transmission and allow us to have more consistent in-person instruction.

  • Testing is quick and easy and is not painful or invasive

  • Participating in the testing program is free (it is recommended that schools use available resources to make testing programs available to educators, staff, students and families at no cost to them)

  • The program is strongly encouraged to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community (note. some schools mandate participation for all in-person learning, for after-school sports and other activities, or create an opt-out system)

  • Guardians need to sign a one-time consent form for their students to participate in the school COVID-19 testing program

Tips for Communicating with Students and Families

  • Remind families that “no news is good news”: if they don’t hear back about test results, they can assume their student is negative

  • Communicate regularly with students and families about how the program is going

  • Ensure that consent forms are in multiple languages and available both on paper and electronically 

  • Create and widely distribute a FAQ (see examples below) 

  • Ensure any communication about the program is accessible and available in multiple languages. Utilize video if possible for greater accessibility 

  • Create a short video showing how the test is performed, ideally in collaboration with a school leader and / or a student 

  • Host a Facebook Live or Zoom webinar to review the testing process and answer questions and concerns from students and parents / guardians 

  • Post about testing regularly on social media and on your school website  

  • Send regular texts, robo calls, and/or email about testing 

  • Include in Superintendent / Principal newsletter

Toolkit Templates: Flyers for Students and Families

 
(Left to right) “Be a Swabbing Superhero” & “How to Test (1-2-3)”

For Educators and Other School Staff 

Key Messages for Students and Families

  • We are offering the school COVID-19 testing program as an additional layer to the protocols we have been taking to ensure that staff and students are as safe as possible

  • Regular COVID-19 testing can quickly detect individuals positive with COVID-19.  This will help us lower the risk of transmission in schools and allow us to have more consistent in-person instruction.

  • Schools that have implemented testing programs have done so smoothly with minimal interruptions to teaching and learning

  • The test is fast, easy, and painless

Tips for Communicating with Educators and Other School Staff 

  • Host a webinar to clearly outline your plan for school COVID-19 testing 

  • Highlight the processes you have put in place to reduce concerns around disruption to class time.  This should include clear scheduling logistics and staffing with timelines

    • For example: Medford Public Schools utilized testing stations for students to walk through; during week 2 of their program, full elementary school classes were able to come in and out of the station in under 5 minutes

  • Provide a clear FAQ that is posted on staff websites and included in other staff communications

National Teachers Union Support for School COVID-19 Testing Programs

Increasing Participation In the Program

Launching the program is just the beginning!

Here are some tips to help you meet your participation goals. 

  • Engage school leaders: Principals, teacher leaders, school parent council members, coaches, can all be great ambassadors for the program

  • Repetition: establish a regular drumbeat about the programs importance

  • Build community: share why this is important to the school and the community

  • Goals: Set and share public goals for participation 

  • Keep it simple: schools collect consent / permission forms for programs all the time. Don’t overcomplicate it & think about what strategies have worked for you in the past.

  • Follow-up Follow-up Follow-up: Leverage your school outreach lead to follow-up with families one-on-one to increase participation rates.

Note. some schools mandate participation for all in-person learning, for after-school sports and other activities, or create an opt-out system

 

For details on the mechanics of collecting consent, please see our Getting Started page.

Communicating about Positive Cases

When you get a positive result, it’s critical to think about how you communicate with your community. When you are in an on-site pooling model, you will need to plan for clear and timely communication with those who need to return for follow-up testing. The details of what you communicate will depend on your specific follow-up testing protocols and schedule. 


This section contains key messages and templates for communications about positive cases.

 
 

Key Messages

  • To your community - message this finding as a success and a reason for more people to participate in the program. 

  • Stay calm and be clear about what a positive case does and does not mean. It does mean that a positive case has been found in the school. It does not mean that everyone in the classroom of the positive case is infected or a close contact. 

  • Clearly reiterate your school’s close contact and contact tracing process developed with your state/local health department, including how long a positive case or a close contact should remain isolated.

  • For any test modality that requires follow-up testing, provide clear instructions about how and when to return for follow-up testing. 

 

Weekly Dashboard

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Communications Templates and Examples