FLUency FAQ

1. How does the Kinsa FLUency program work?

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

With FLUency, every staff and student household who wants one 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, or to 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 can we participate in the program?

We would be thrilled to support your school! The power of the Kinsa program gets exponentially greater the more families that use it. That’s why we strongly encourage entire districts to participate. Here are the ways to get the program:

Your school district provides the program to schools. Here’s an overview of how districts can use federal funds to secure the program for their school communities for years to come.
Submit interest for the 2021-2022 program here. If your district or school cannot afford the low cost program, you can indicate your interest in the free, sponsored program.
Email kinsa-fluency@kinsahealth.com for more information.

3. How does Kinsa protect student privacy?

As a health company, privacy is paramount at Kinsa. Kinsa thermometers do not collect personally-identifiable information. All communication through the Kinsa app can be anonymous, and all health trends are aggregated. Kinsa does not, and will not ever, share individual details or data.. Our mission is to help stop the spread of illness by understanding trends. All the information we share is aggregated, anonymous, and fully privacy-protected.

4. Is Kinsa compliant with all applicable medical privacy regulations?

Yes! Additionally, for schools, as we do not have visibility into a student’s education records, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) does not apply to Kinsa products.

5. Does this program create more work for already-overworked school administrators?

No! For six years, we’ve seen that FLUency actually reduces burden on school administrators by 1) arming families with thermometers so sick children are not sent in to school, 2) reducing unnecessary clinic visits as fewer parents send sick children to school, 3) giving school leaders the early knowledge they need on what’s going around, so they can take action to keep the school healthy and safe.

6. Does the Kinsa app work 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.