The District announced Friday that all public school students would automatically be put into its asymptomatic coronavirus testing program — a reversal from its long-standing position that parents must consent to testing.

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       The city aims to test between 10 to 20 percent of students at every school weekly to provide a snapshot of the infection rate, raising red flags if the figure is higher than the neighborhood that surrounds it.

       Parents can submit a form to opt out of the saliva-based tests.

       The change takes effect Monday, the first day of classes for D.C. Public Schools.

       The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says schools may test at least 10 percent of unvaccinated students or conduct regular pool testing as part of a mitigation strategy against the coronavirus.

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       “The District’s transition to an opt-out model will significantly increase participation in the District’s COVID-19 school-based testing program while simultaneously reducing administrative burdens and barriers to testing for schools, students and families,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and administration officials said in a news release.

       Last spring, D.C. probably tested 4% — not 10 % — of students in asymptomatic testing program, report finds.

       At multiple news conferences this week, Bowser and administration officials insisted that they would only test students whose parents consented and said they would work to ensure the city advertised the forms and collected as many as possible.

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       But parents and teachers have pushed on social media and in public meetings to change the parameters of the program. The Bowser administration was previously unclear on whether it would be testing 10 percent of all students at a school, or just 10 percent of students with consent forms.

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       The Office of the D.C. Auditor released a report this month saying that the city probably tested 4 percent of students attending in-person classes in its asymptomatic testing program in the spring, falling short of local and federal suggestions.

       Advocates feared that if the city relied on parents turning in consent forms for the testing program, different schools could have disparate testing rates.

       Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said Friday that the city determined a switch to this opt-out of testing would be a more effective strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus. He said the city has no liability concerns about the new policy.

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       “We decided it’s really in the best interest of schools and communities based on what we now know,” Kihn said.

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       The Office of the State Superintendent is operating the testing programs for traditional public and charter schools.

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       Charter schools can opt-out of the testing program and implement their own. KIPP DC and Friendship — the city’s two largest charter networks — are testing every student and teacher each week in a pooled testing model.

       Paulette Lewis is sending her young son back to Stanton Elementary School in Southeast Washington next week for the first time since March 2020. She signed the permission form for testing last week — when it was still required — saying that her son would be safer in a school building with robust testing.

       “If kids are getting tested regularly,” she said. “I’ll feel comfortable.”

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       The District has required that all school system staff be vaccinated or tested each week.

       Earlier this week, more than a majority of the D.C. Council called for the city to remove the testing option for public school employees and day-care workers. City administrator Kevin Donahue said Friday that the District is not yet prepared to impose a stricter vaccine mandate for teachers since current efforts to get them vaccinated are going well.

       Most of D.C. Council calls on mayor to mandate coronavirus vaccines — without testing option — for teachers, child-care workers.

       At present, 66 percent of teachers have reported that they are fully vaccinated and 5 percent reported that they are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated; the rest have not responded.

       That puts teachers slightly ahead of D.C. government employees as a whole, among whom 66 percent are either partially or fully vaccinated, 6 percent are unvaccinated and the rest have not reported their status.

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       Meanwhile, Patrick Ashley, who runs emergency response for the D.C. health department, told D.C. Council members that the District’s long reprieve from the delta variant, which hit most of the country months earlier, has come to an end.

       As recently as early July, when delta was detected in the majority of positive coronavirus tests in other parts of the country, just 1 percent of coronavirus cases in the District appeared to be caused by the variant.

       But lab results show that has changed, Ashley said: “Delta is the predominant strain that we do see in the area.”

       julie.weil@washpost.com