AUTHOR=Ramirez Magaly , Bishop Sonia , Ibarra Genoveva , Shah Parth , Duran Miriana C. , Chae Hwa Young , Hassell Laurie , Garza Lorenzo , Linde Sandra , Garrison Michelle M. , Drain Paul K. , Ko Linda K. 

TITLE=An agricultural community’s perspectives on COVID-19 testing to support safe school reopening

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1215385

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1215385

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Introduction: School-based COVID-19 testing may be an effective strategy for reducing transmission in schools and keeping schools open. The study objective was to examine community perspectives on school-based COVID-19 testing as a mitigation strategy to support safe school reopening.We conducted a qualitative study in Yakima County, an agricultural region of Washington state, where over half of residents are Hispanic/Latino. From June to July 2021, we interviewed 18 students (13 years old, on average) and 19 school employees, and conducted four focus groups (2 in Spanish, 2 in English) with 26 parents. We audio-recorded the semi-structured interviews and focus This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article group discussions which were then transcribed. We used an inductive, constant comparison approach to code the transcripts and conducted a thematic analysis to generate themes.We identified four main themes. Students, parents, and school employees desired a return to in-person learning (Theme 1). Schools implemented numerous COVID-19 mitigation strategies (e.g., masking) to facilitate a safe return to school but felt that adding testing would not be feasible due to a lack of resources and overworked staff (Theme 2). Parents and school employees' familiarity with COVID-19 testing procedures influenced their support for testing (Theme 3). Parents and school employees felt there were inadequate resources for individuals who test positive for COVID-19 (Theme 4).