ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — New York’s largest teacher’s union has called for increased COVID-19 testing in schools as a way to get kids back in the classroom.

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Pres. Andy Pallotta was joined in the call for increased testing by the American Federation of Teachers and the NFL Players’ Association. NYSUT said districts should use SUNY and the NFL as models for creating and expanding coronavirus testing programs.

“Testing is an early warning system,” American Federation of Teachers Pres. Randi Weingarten said. “In a disease — in a virus — that spreads asymptomatically most of the time, the way to manage, not only reopening but staying open, the way to manage ensuring that you don’t have an outbreak is through this kind of regular testing.”

Under current New York State guidelines, schools are only required to test a percentage of students and staff if their infection rate is higher than the infection rate of the community they’re in.