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Tag: Vision To Learn

  • Governor Mike DeWine Launches New ‘Children’s Vision Strike Force’ at Vision to Learn School Site

    Governor Mike DeWine Launches New ‘Children’s Vision Strike Force’ at Vision to Learn School Site

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    CLEVELAND, May 16, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Governor Mike DeWine made history today by launching the first-ever statewide plan to ensure every child who needs glasses at school gets glasses. DeWine outlined the goals of his “Children’s Vision Strike Force” during a visit to a school site served by Vision To Learn, the nation’s largest charitable provider of mobile school-based vision care.

    Addressing the audience at Oxford Elementary, the most recent of over 180 Ohio public schools visited by Vision To Learn since 2021, Governor DeWine said, “Experts tell us that 80 percent of a child’s learning comes through their sense of sight. Fortunately, we have leaders who are doing innovative work to help connect more students with supports like eye exams and glasses. These models are making a real difference. Now, it is time to bring these proven solutions to more schools and more communities across Ohio.”

    “Vision To Learn salutes Governor DeWine for his leadership in setting out to end the ‘glasses gap’ for every child in Ohio,” said Austin Beutner, founder of Vision To Learn. “When a child comes to school, we make sure they’re provided with food, along with the books and school supplies they need. Why not glasses? Every child in every school, everywhere in the country, should have the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life.”

    Approximately 1 in 4 children need glasses to see clearly at school, but in many low-income and/or rural communities, children often go without access to eye care. In Ohio, an estimated 250,000 students lack glasses, despite children vision screenings provided to children at school every other year. Vision To Learn (VTL), a non-profit charity, seeks to address this issue by providing vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to children at schools in low-income communities across the country. They have provided more than 3 million children in 17 states and the District of Columbia with vision screenings, 570,000 with eye exams and 470,000 with glasses, all at no cost to children or their families. 27% of children provided with a vision screening by Vision To Learn needed glasses and more than 90% of those who needed them did not have them. 

    Vision To Learn started helping children in Ohio in 2021 together with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and the Ohio Optometric Foundation’s iSee program at Cambridge Primary in Cambridge. The effort has since expanded to Youngstown with the support of Sight for All United and the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, and to Cleveland with the support of Ford Motor Fund and The Kaulig Foundation. 

    Vision To Learn operates the most comprehensive and cost-effective, school-based program for children’s eye care in Ohio and has provided more than 36,000 children with vision screenings and 10,000 with glasses in the state. An essential component of its public-private model is collaborating with local partners, including philanthropic organizations, eye care professionals, school districts, and state and local government. 

    In 2021, Vision To Learn’s program in Southeastern Ohio became the first program funded by the pay-for-success program ResultsOHIO. Over the next two years, Vision To Learn exceeded every program metric established with ResultsOHIO, helping kids in 24 rural counties receive school-based eye care.

    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 3 million children with vision screenings and about 480,000 with glasses, in 17 states and the District of Columbia, all at no cost to children or their families. For more information on Vision To Learn, please visit www.visiontolearn.org.

    Source: Vision To Learn

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  • Vision to Learn Founder Austin Beutner, Jim Kelly and New York Times Columnist Nick Kristof Address Vision Care Crisis Among School Children Across the Country

    Vision to Learn Founder Austin Beutner, Jim Kelly and New York Times Columnist Nick Kristof Address Vision Care Crisis Among School Children Across the Country

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    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, Ore., February 7, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    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 Gurerrero. “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.

    Source: Vision To Learn

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