NMPED requires COVID-19 surveillance testing for 25% of unvaccinated students and school staff

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico’s Public Education Department is requiring schools to establish in-school COVID testing for unvaccinated students and staff.

NMPED wants schools to do this every week and have a weekly goal of testing 25% of unvaccinated students and staff.

Rio Rancho schools are requiring vaccination proof if students want to ditch the mask.

At Albuquerque Public Schools, masks are required for everyone indoors, no matter their vaccination status. There is not a vaccination verification system in place.

"We certainly cannot guarantee 25% of students, but we are trying to comply with the toolkit," a RRPS spokesperson said in a statement.

Without a vaccine verification process, there are about 88,000 students who returned to the classroom this year at APS. To reach the 25% goal, schools will have to test more than 22,000 students a week, or 150 students a day.

The district hasn’t released how many students might fall into the unvaccinated testing category, but they do have a system in place for families to submit their children’s results — testing on their own time, out of school.

When asked if and how schools can get this done, APS did not respond to KOB 4’s questions.

The state said with increased testing capacity and options, it’s possible:

“Testing 22,000 students per week in Albuquerque is well within the capacity of the system.”

NMPED has yet to respond to KOB 4’s questions on what testing in schools will look like.