Dear I.S. 24 Myra S. Barnes (31R024) Families: This past week, your child and their fellow I.S. 24 students continued their learning journey through these unprecedented times. There have been many ups and downs since March, but our commitment to health, safety, and academic excellence remains unchanged. As I have shared earlier, we have partnered with NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the NYC Test & Trace Corps to coordinate random testing of NYC Department of Education (DOE) students and staff for COVID-19 infection. Random testing helps identify positive COVID-19 cases when symptoms are not present, which will help us prevent transmission of COVID-19 in our school buildings. This is a very important part of keeping you, your child, and your child’s teachers safe and healthy. The test itself is safe, easy, quick, and completely confidential, and thousands of New York City students have already participated in in-school testing. To perform the test, we need consent of a parent or guardian, and thank the many families who have provided their consent so far. However, we have learned that due to a database entry error, one student in your school community who did not provide consent for in-school COVID-19 testing was mistakenly included in testing last week. We deeply regret this error. As a parent, I would never want my child to undergo a test that I had not consented to. We have adjusted our protocols to do all we can to prevent errors like this from happening. We have incorporated additional checks for student consent on the morning of testing days to ensure that all records are fully up to date with the latest-real time consent information. I want to reassure you that if your student is tested, all information related to in-school testing is confidential and protected under the New York City Health Code and other local, state, and federal laws. The laboratory partners we work with use specimens for no other purpose than COVID-19 testing, and each specimen is destroyed as soon as a COVID-19 clinical result is successfully issued. In all cases, our partners operate under strict privacy and confidentiality protocols. All information is stored securely, and results are used only to facilitate closing of classrooms or school buildings and to support contact tracing as necessary. I encourage you to review the frequently asked questions and additional materials available at schools.nyc.gov/covidtesting, where we share more information about the importance of random testing and how it works. It is critical that we test enough students and staff monthly to help monitor COVID-19 in our communities and to prevent transmission of the virus in our school buildings. Thank you for being part of our collective effort to keep our students, families, and staff safe, and our children on a strong, productive learning journey.