Students' return from winter break will likely involve more COVID tests
FILE - Children wear protective masks inside an elementary school classroom with separate desks for social distancing measures.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The New Year is almost here, and for many families that means students will be heading back to class after the holiday break.
Depending on which school district and whether you're going to elementary school or college, what you need to do depends on where you're going to school.
As 2021 draws to a close, students will be returning to class next week, and are facing returning to school amidst the surge of the omicron variant.
In Oakland, school resumes January 3 and all students 12 and older will be required to be fully vaccinated to return to class after the holiday break.
Oakland Unified School District also sent home 41,000 at home tests with online instructions on how to use them, and are strongly encouraging families to test their students before they resume in-person instruction.
Across the Bay, in San Francisco, school also resumes January 3. The district is strongly encouraging students 5 years and older get their vaccination shots.
"And then we're also sharing information on how to access testing," said Laura Dudnick from San Francisco Unified School District. "We are strongly encouraging, but not requiring that people get tested before coming back to school on Monday."
Once students come back, the district will be hosting a series of testing clinics, open for ongoing testing. "We've expanded our opportunities for people to get tested," said Dudnick. "We're offering mobile rapid testing beginning this Sunday, January 2nd through January 9th at locations throughout the school district."
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College students are also navigating the path back to class following the winter break.
University of California's president issued a letter to the 10 UC chancellors to come up with back to school plans. UC wide, students are required to be vaccinated and boosted as soon as they're able.
UC Berkeley says it expects everyone to get tested for COVID before returning to campus. When it comes to ongoing testing "for vaccinated students, faculty and staff surveillance testing not required for 180 days from the date you are fully vaccinated."
Kahena Wilhite attends UC Santa Cruz. "It's still a bit stressful, to go to campus and interact with people without knowing for sure," said Wilhite.
She says she's planning on returning to her apartment next week, the school is also strongly encouraging tests, but finding a testing location or even a home test is proving nearly impossible. "Everyplace is filled up right now for the test," said Wilhite. "There's no available tests for the rest of the week. However, I want to go back to campus this week. Kaiser doesn't have it. CVS."
The state has announced that due to the surge in omicron cases it will be distributing some 6 million tests to K-12th graders as they return from the winter break.
Education leaders are strongly encouraging families to report the results to the schools and the state so they can keep tabs on the progress of COVID.