Governor Mike DeWine made history on Thursday by launching the first-ever statewide plan to ensure that every child who needs glasses at school gets them. 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 require glasses for clear vision at school, but in many low-income and/or rural communities, children often lack access to eye care. In Ohio, an estimated 250,000 students do not have glasses, despite receiving vision screenings at school every other year. Vision To Learn (VTL), a non-profit organization, aims to tackle this issue by providing vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to children in schools in low-income communities across the country. They have conducted over 3 million vision screenings, 570,000 eye exams, and provided 470,000 pairs of glasses to children in 17 states and the District of Columbia, all at no cost to the children or their families. 27% of children who underwent 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 began assisting children in Ohio in 2021 in partnership with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and the Ohio Optometric Foundation’s iSee program at Cambridge Primary in Cambridge. The initiative 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 runs the most extensive and cost-effective school-based program for children’s eye care in Ohio and has conducted over 36,000 vision screenings and provided 10,000 pairs of glasses to children in the state. A crucial aspect of its public-private model is working with local partners, including philanthropic organizations, eye care professionals, school districts, and state and local governments.
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 surpassed every program metric set by ResultsOHIO, providing school-based eye care to kids in 24 rural counties.
