MONTPELIER — Last week, Vermont officials announced plans to give away nearly 90,000 rapid COVID-19 testing kits to students around the state.
Through an initiative called “Kits for Kids,” state officials planned to distribute more than 87,000 kits — enough for every student in Vermont — on Dec. 30 and 31 at sites around the state.
But only 44,700 kits, about half of the total, were distributed on those days, a Vermont Department of Health spokesperson said, leaving the state with more than 40,000 test kits — each containing two tests — on hand.
Amid a nationwide COVID-19 testing shortage, the volume of leftovers marks a stark contrast to previous state test giveaways. In a pre-holiday test distribution on Dec. 23, Vermonters cleaned out state stockpiles in just hours.
In response to questions from VTDigger, health department spokesperson Will Terry framed Kits for Kids as a success story. The state managed to get thousands of tests into parents’ hands on short notice, he said.
“In a relatively short period of time, the logistics were arranged to move 87,000 test kits to 51 Agency of Transportation sites and certain school locations across the state,” Terry said in an email. “In total, the families of about half of all Vermont’s K-12 students came out on short notice, during a busy holiday season, to keep their kids, their families and their school communities safe.”
State agencies plan to give the leftover 42,300 kits to schools, Terry said. But that has not yet happened.
“The remaining kits have not yet been distributed out to school districts,” he said. “However, several school districts still have kits left over from the original tranche (of 44,700). So we hope and expect that those districts can begin to use and distribute them fairly quickly.”
The state began planning for the leftover tests on Dec. 31, he said, and “additional planning and communications are ongoing.”
“Several school districts assisted with distribution, and already have leftover kits in place,” he said.
Vermont officials publicly announced Kits for Kids on Dec. 29, amid the rise of the contagious omicron virus variant during a holiday week.
Through the program, parents were able to pick up one free kit, each containing two rapid antigen tests, for every K-12 student in the state. Students were intended to test themselves twice within the last two days of vacation, with a 24-hour interval between the two tests.
The tests were not required for students to return to school. But with daily case counts breaking records on a near-daily basis, Gov. Phil Scott pitched the distribution of rapid tests as a tool to slow the contagion and give parents “peace of mind.”
“It also will help protect the most vulnerable and keep schools open, so kids can get the education they need and deserve,” Scott said in a news release.
State officials also sent information about the giveaway to schools and districts around the state, Terry said.
But Jeanne Collins, superintendent of the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, said fewer than half of parents in her district were able to pick up the test. Some parents were unable to complete the online registration, she said, while others did not have time to wait in line.
“Other parents were really upset because they could only get a 7 a.m. appointment,” Collins said. “And who can go at 7 a.m. in a town that’s 35 miles away? Because Rutland didn’t have anything. Middlebury didn’t have anything.”
Brooke Olsen-Farrell, superintendent of the Slate Valley Unified School District, which is based in Fair Haven, said she did not know how many parents had gotten tests.
But during the holiday week, she said, many parents were unreachable.
“One of my concerns was that parents weren’t checking their email,” Olsen-Farrell said. “Staff with kids in our district weren’t necessarily checking their email last week. It was difficult to reach people and get that information in their hands.”
The test distribution also frustrated some parents and child care workers, as tests were not made available for preschool students and young children in child care programs.
“The health department and other state agencies will continue to evaluate the results and how these efforts can best be adapted moving forward, building on the success of this program,” Terry said.