- More than 3 million children across the country go to school every day without the glasses they need.
- The need is most acute in low-income communities, where 90% of children who need glasses do not have them.
- Vision To Learn helps address the issue by providing vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to children at schools in low-income communities. Vision To Learn recently launched efforts in Oregon.
PORTLAND, OR – Austin Beutner, Nick Kristof, Jim Kelly and Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero joined teachers, school staff and students at Sitton Elementary School to recognize Portland Public Schools’ efforts to provide eye care to students.
In October 2023, non-profit charity Vision To Learn launched an effort in Oregon which has since provided vision screenings to more than 3,200 students and glasses to more than 500. Vision To Learn brings the services to where children are almost every day, their local neighborhood school.
“More than 3 million children across the country go to school every day without the glasses they need,” said Vision To Learn Founder Austin Beutner. “Every child in every school, everywhere in the country, should have the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life.”
“When children go to school hungry, we feed them. We make sure they have the books and school supplies they need. Why not glasses?” said Jim Kelly. “What we’re doing here in Oregon is a start, but the federal and state governments across the country need to make sure every school child has the glasses they need.”
“Improper optical care causes cascading problems for a school district,” said Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero. “Vision To Learn enhances our ability to offer thousands of students a higher-quality teaching and learning experience. We thank them for their partnership and for filling this critical gap.”
“Kids can’t learn if they can’t see the blackboard,” said Kristof, who is from Yamhill, Oregon. “I’m thrilled to see Vision to Learn come to Oregon and get kids the glasses they need. This is one of the most cost-effective interventions in the world of education, and I hope it can reach every corner of the state.”
Vision To Learn’s effort in Oregon has found a large unmet need among students in the state. About 27% of students provided with a vision screening by Vision To Learn needed an eye exam, 80% of students who received an eye exam needed glasses and more than 70% of them did not have them.
Experts estimate three to four million children across the country go to school every day unable to see the board or pages of a textbook clearly. About one in four children will naturally need glasses. Children who need glasses and don’t have them are more likely to be misdiagnosed with behavioral issues in kindergarten, be labeled “slow” learners by 5th grade, and to drop out of high school. Unfortunately, in low-income urban and rural communities, most children who need glasses don’t have them due to financial constraints, language barriers, unresponsive health bureaucracies or the simple fact there are no eye care professionals in their neighborhood.
Over the last decade, nonprofit charity Vision To Learn has worked to address the “glasses gap” by providing vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to kids where they are most days – at their neighborhood school. With a fleet of mobile clinics staffed with trained and licensed eye care professionals, Vision To Learn has helped ensure 2.8 million students across the country received vision screenings and provided more than 425,000 with glasses, all at no cost to the child or their family.
The impact of providing glasses to children at schools is shown in a study published in JAMA Ophthalmology by researchers from the Center for Research and Reform in Education and the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
The researchers conducted the largest and most rigorous study in the U.S. about the connection between glasses and academic achievement by comparing students’ standardized test scores before and after receiving glasses from Vision To Learn. Thousands of children from more than 100 schools in Baltimore participated in the study. The children who received glasses did much better in school and the impacts were greater than more costly measures such as lengthening the school day, providing computers, or creating charter schools. The children who showed the biggest gains, the equivalent of an additional four to six months of learning, were those who are often the hardest to help—students in the bottom quarter of their class academically and students with learning differences and disabilities.
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About Vision To Learn
Vision To Learn, a non-profit charity, was founded in 2012 by Austin Beutner and the Beutner Family Foundation. Vision To Learn serves the needs of the hardest-to-reach children; about 90% of kids served by Vision To Learn live in poverty and about 85% are Black or Latino. Vision To Learn has provided more than 2.8 million children with vision screenings and more than 425,000 with glasses, in 16 states and the District of Columbia. It has also identified more than 50,000 children with more complex vision and medical issues – all at no cost to children or their families. For more information on Vision To Learn, please visit www.visiontolearn.org.
Vision To Learn and Rep. James E. Clyburn Celebrate Expansion of School-based Vision Program to Dorchester County