Throughout Pennsylvania, there hasn’t been much enthusiasm from school districts to take advantage of a free COVID-19 testing program, writes Jamie Martines for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Here in Delaware County, only two school districts signed up; Chester-Upland, one of the poorest districts in the county; and Radnor, one of the wealthiest.

For whatever reason, despite low child vaccination rates and spikes in coronavirus infections, schools around Pennsylvania have been slow to take advantage of the state’s free testing program.

Only 750 out of more than 5,000 charter, private, and public schools in Pennsylvania have enrolled in the program provided by the state health department, as of Feb. 16.

About half of the participating schools are currently actively testing, while the rest are in the onboarding process.

“That’s not enough,” said Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter. She added that the state is continuing with “further outreach” to encourage participation.

The program has struggled to gain momentum as schools juggle competing issues: COVID-19 outbreaks fueled by new variants and exhausted school staff.

Overall, out of 500 public school districts in Pennsylvania, only 25 percent are using the state’s program.

Read more about the free COVID-19 testing program in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Here’s how COVID testing played out nationally in the schools a month ago.