Welcome to the Color COVID-19
Testing Program, in partnership
with the California Department
of Public Health
Program Overview
We are excited to help you set up your testing program to keep your community safe.
Once you have signed up, we will send you emails to begin onboarding. Here’s an overview
of how you’ll run your program.
Onboarding & Site Setup
These pages detail the steps and decisions necessary to complete onboarding and set up your testing programs.
Identify your testing team
It takes a team to run an effective testing program, and we recommend
selecting people from across your organization for the roles below.

Program Director
Responsible for identifying collection sites and the site lead for each collection site.
Color Access
- Staff management “site manager” role, to manage team member access sample collection
- Results dashboards for all sites
- Access management, to edit team member access to dashboards

Site Lead
Responsible for all testing at a collection site and setting up at-home testing. They identify testing administrators, distribute testing supplies.
All testing administrators complete training, performing the necessary antigen test kit qualification, and maintaining quality control logs.
Color Access
- Staff management “site manager” role, to manage team member access to sample collection
- Results dashboard for their site
- Access management, to edit team member access to dashboards

Testing Administrator
Testing administrators set up testing stations and oversee sample collection. They’ll use Color to record which participants provide samples. At least one testing administrator should be selected for each testing station.
Testing administrators at monitored antigen testing sites are required to complete Color’s antigen testing training program.
Color Access
- Staff management “site staff” role

Participants
Participants are the individuals who register, consent, and provide samples for testing. For participants under 12 years of age, a parent or guardian must register and provide consent on their behalf. Participants may test at your testing site or at home, depending on your program.
Sign up for Color accounts
All staff must create Color accounts. Here’s how it works:
- Head to home.color.com/create-account.
Enter your organization email, and set up a password. We’ll send an email to confirm your email address once you’ve created your account. After confirming, your account is ready for use.
On testing days
For monitored programs, testing administrators will log into Color via home.color.com/admin – we suggest bookmarking this link.
If you need a Color account, please contact your organization lead. If you haven’t received a confirmation email, check your spam folder.
Order test kits
After your first shipment, you will be responsible for ordering additional test kits. Please contact cdph-antigen-kit-ordering@color.com to place an order for antigen test kits.

Get additional materials
Be sure to have these on hand before you begin collecting samples.
Hand sanitizer, a waste bin, and personal protective equipment (PPE)
Internet
Tablets and/or laptops
Scanners
Electricity
Set up registration and testing stations
The collection site should have stations for registration and testing. Registration stations are where participants or their parent/guardian register for testing, and testing stations are where they provide their samples. Monitored antigen testing sites should also have a designated station for recording test results.
These are the materials you’ll need for each registration station:
These are the materials you’ll need for each testing station:
Participants at monitored collection sites or their parents/guardians can register one of two ways:
1. Using their own device
Before testing day Color will email school leads two separate registration links (URLs), one for staff and one for students, so participants or their parents/guardians can register for testing in advance at home.
Organization leads can turn registration links (URLs) into QR codes to print and post at the collection site so participants or their parents/guardians can register in advance.
To create a QR code, head to qrcode-monkey.com, enter your URL, click “Generate QR Code”, then “Download PNG”.
2. With assistance
For participants or parents/guardians without access to technology or who need additional assistance, organizations can set up a device on site that can be used to access the registration links.
Organizations can set up a hotline, staffed by people familiar with the registration process that can provide additional support.





Collecting Samples
Here are step-by-step instructions for collecting monitored antigen testing samples:
- Head to home.color.com/covid-admin and sign in to Color.
- Select your site and “COVID-19 rapid testing”.
- Search and select the name of the participant. Click “Confirm”.
- Walk the participant through sample collection and conduct the test per the manufacturer instructions.
- Wait for the test to process.
- Search and select the name of the participant in the “collected” list. Enter and confirm results.
Store unused test kits
The recommended storage temperature for antigen kits is between 35.6 and 86° F.
Please note: Kits may not be transferred to a different site or used for any purpose other than for sample collection. For safety reasons and to ensure specimen samples are not contaminated or damaged and results are accurate, unused kits may not be returned once they are delivered to a collection site. Unused collection kits must be destroyed when the testing program ends. There are specific expiration dates listed on components of the kits. Please destroy any unused, expired antigen kits by placing them in the regular trash.
Monitoring & Maintaining Your Program
Results dashboards
Overview Dashboard which presents aggregate data and is meant to provide an overview of the statistics for a site or set of sites, including the number of tests, percent of tests with each type of results, and participant demographics. The overview dashboard does not include identifiable patient information.
Testing Patient Dashboard which provides row-level identifiable patient information, where each row represents the results of an individual participant and includes demographics, contact information, and test results. If you’re using pooled testing, you will not have access to a testing patient dashboard.
How to access and use dashboards
To access dashboards, log your Color account, select reports (you may need to click on your name and choose “use another Color product”). If you don’t have access to dashboards, contact your district director, district administrator, or school administrator.
District directors and school leads can request or revoke dashboard access for team members by selecting “access management” in Color.
Access DashboardsNote:
All Color monitored antigen tests are Rx only and therefore are physician ordered.
All test results are released to the ordering physician as part of the reporting workflow.