BUNNELL, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health in Flagler County says it will offer this school year a stay-in-school option for school students and staff members who come in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

Rather than quarantine outside of school for 10 days, staff and students at the county's schools will be able to receive daily COVID-19 rapid tests and remain in school as long as the results remain negative, said Flagler County Health spokeswoman Gretchen Smith.

“We’re really trying to make this an option for parents so that they don’t have to take off 10 days to quarantine with their child,” Smith told Spectrum News 13 on Thursday.

Flagler County School District board member Jill Woolbright said in a Friday email reply to Spectrum News that "it is strictly parental choice and the school district will honor both choices."

Smith said inspiration for the initiative came in part from programs such as those in Utah that require COVID-19 testing for athletes and that offer a school-wide testing alternative to remote instruction if a school crosses a defined outbreak threshold.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that Utah’s approach could serve as a “framework for other jurisdictions considering school-based testing as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy to help identify SARS-CoV-2 infections while sustaining in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.”

Flagler County Health’s plan comes through federal funding that Smith said the agency received in part to help support in-person learning during the pandemic. Other health departments also received federal funds to combat COVID-19 in schools, she said.

It’s unclear how many other county health agencies, if any, plan to mirror Flagler’s plan. The Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee did not reply to an email that requested such information.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health in Orange County’s epidemiology program continues, through grant funding, to work on a plan “to address testing and containing the COVID-19 virus” when Orange County Public Schools open in August, spokesman Kent Donahue said in an email to Spectrum News 13. He added that the agency had “no details to share at this time.”

Like many other Central Florida school districts, the Flagler County School District and Orange County Public Schools begin classes on Aug. 10. In the meantime, the coronavirus delta variant continues to spread quickly throughout the region, state and U.S., prompting some local governments and businesses to require employee vaccinations and in certain conditions mask-wearing regardless of vaccination status.

Flagler County Health’s testing option covers students and staff who are “considered to have had close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19,” Smith said.

Students and staff members who choose testing over quarantine will get a COVID-19 rapid test every day for 10 days. They can stay in school as long as they keep testing negative, officials say.

Affected staff and students will take the test every other day at county health offices. On the other days, they’ll take the test at home, with training for parents.

“And it’s super easy to do... just sticking an extended Q-tip up your nose,” Smith said.

She said Flagler County Health will “back up” positive tests with polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests, which the Cleveland Clinic calls “the most accurate test available” for COVID-19 detection.

Officials continue to work out details, Smith said.

Flagler Schools spokesman Jason Wheeler called the plan a “health department decision” and told Spectrum News “it’s not in our purview to comment.”

Yet he did say: “We appreciate every effort to get our students back on campus as soon as possible if they’re caught up in a quarantine.”