FLUency FAQ

1. How does the Kinsa FLUency program work?

Kinsa’s FLUency program helps stop the spread of illness in schools. For seven years, FLUency has been helping school communities understand and respond to spreading illness so we can all stay healthier.

With FLUency, students and staff will get Kinsa’s award-winning smart thermometer and medical triage app for free.

Families can effectively monitor fever and symptoms at home and get immediate care recommendations right when a loved one falls ill, helping them get better faster. School leaders can see aggregated, anonymous illness trends by grade (no private information is shared), empowering them to encourage safe and healthy behaviors to school families and staff when they are most needed (like asking them to look out for symptoms of spreading illness, disinfect commonly-used surfaces, or practice good hand washing). With more information, participants have more power to keep the community safe from not only COVID-19, but also annual and common illnesses like the flu or strep.

2. How do I enroll or know if my school is participating?

If you’re a school administrator, (e.g. principal, parent coordinator, or nurse), you can expect to be contacted for the opportunity to opt-in to FLUency. If your school has not been contacted, please submit interest in the program here.

If you are a teacher, staff member, or parent, please check with your school administrator(s) to see if your school is already participating.

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3. As a School Administrator, what are my responsibilities with FLUency?

You will receive everything you need from Kinsa to run the program, including free thermometers and Lysol disinfectants, electronic brochures you can distribute, and access to a school portal. The portal will enable you to easily monitor illness spread in your school and send announcements to students and staff.

4. Does this program create more work for already-overworked school administrators and leaders?

No! Our goal is to decrease the workload on school administrators and leaders by:

Arming families with thermometers so sick children are not sent in to school, limiting the spread of illness.
Reducing unnecessary school clinic visits as fewer parents send sick children to school.
Helping leaders know what trends are going around their school so they can react appropriately and encourage preventive health measures to keep healthy students well.

5. Do my students have to use Kinsa? Does it replace the NYC Department of Education Screening Tool?

FLUency is a completely opt-in program. Your school enrolls, and participation for families and staff is completely optional. Your students are not mandated to use Kinsa (though families love it!)

Kinsa is a health monitoring and triage tool for the household whereas NYC DOE’s Health Screening Tool screening tool is required for physical entry into a DOE building.

6. Are there materials in other languages?

The Kinsa app and supporting materials are currently available in English and Spanish. The app is intentionally designed with an emphasis on intuitive visuals, making it easy to use across languages.

7. Can my school get thermometers but not use the accompanying app?

The purpose of the FLUency program is to stop the spread of illness in schools. The app is crucial to the program for several reasons:

It provides immediate triage and care guidance to households when someone falls ill, helping people get better faster.
It guides parents to keep sick kiddos at home and out of school, limiting the spread of illness.
It gives school leaders early knowledge of where illness is starting and spreading, so they can take action to stop it (like increased testing and disinfecting, or encouraging healthy behaviors).

All FLUency schools are expected to use both the Kinsa smart thermometers and app - that’s how the program works best! Rest assured, the app is very easy-to-use - parents, kids, teachers, nurses, principals - everyone loves it!

8. Who is Kinsa?

Learn more about Kinsa here.