Our plan to provide simple, affordable testing to every school in America

What is classroom pooling?

Classroom pooling is a method of surveillance testing where lower nasal swabs from everyone in a class are mixed together and tested with a single molecular test. This gives schools and districts population-level data to make informed public health decisions at a fraction of the cost of individual testing plans.

Classroom pooling enables widespread testing with low cost, easy logistics, and nationwide capacity

• Affordable: Target cost is between $5-7 per person in the pool.
• Simple: Easy self-swab process for students in the third grade and up and simple assisted collection for younger students.
• Scalable: Existing labs running individual molecular tests (i.e. PCR) can also run pooled samples. This means pooling could multiply our existing testing capacity by twenty times or more.

What is the purpose of the pilot program?

We are running several free pilots now to test logistics and operations at schools around the country. Our goal is to build infrastructure to make COVID-19 testing accessible for K-12 schools nationwide.

What we hope to learn:

• On-site protocols that work for schools of all sizes
• Best practices for sample collection across all age groups
• Improvements to the overall process (IT portal, results sharing, shipping, etc.)

Some quotes from participants in the free pilots:

Principal: “The Ginkgo student-administered COVID testing is an easy process for my scholars…our scholars learn and can be an active participant in the community fight of the spread of COVID-19.”

Teacher: “So now that you’ve done it once, will you do it again?”

1st grader: “200 million times more!”

Sixth Grader: “The test was not bad at all. It just tickles.”

Join our pilot program and be part of the solution! 

Participation in our pilot program is absolutely free and not connected to any future commitment. For more information, please contact K12@ginkgobioworks.com or sign up for an information session at https://www.concentricbyginkgo.com/k12pilots/.