Free eye exams and prescription eyewear were given to approximately 600 students attending Ceres schools Monday thanks to a Turlock charity which brought the “Glasses 2 Classes” program to town.
CUSD partnered with Legacy Health Endowment of Turlock to bring a mobile vision lab operated by Optical Academy to the Hanline Elementary campus yesterday. From 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. a licensed optometrist and certified technicians conducted eye exams. At a rate of 145 per 45-minute window, students needing eyeglasses tried on frames and will receive their glasses at their respective school today.
According to optical-academy.com, 70 percent of children who fail a school vision screening never see an eye doctor or receive the needed corrective eyewear. The goal of Optical Academy is to “bridge that gap and provide children with mobile eye exams and eyewear right in the comfort and convenience of their school.”
Edith Narayan, CUSD’s coordinator of Student Services, said that Jeffrey Lewis of Legacy Health Endowment is “just an amazing guy. He has helped support districts to bring Glasses 2 Classes from the East Coast here.”
Legacy provided the funds to cover 200 eye exams and glasses while CUSD is covering the remaining 400 or so.
CUSD nurses do vision screenings and those who failed in testing were referred to yesterday’s event.
Narayan praised the effort to get students equipped with glasses to help remove visual impediments to reading and learning.
“It’s very difficult for students, especially low-income students to find inexpensive glasses or even pay for exams so a lot of them don’t receive any glasses,” noted Narayan.
Often Ceres schools must hold off on doing Individualized Education Program (IEP) assessments until a student gets their needed glasses.
“We’re so blessed to be able to get this organization,” added Narayan.
The concept for a mobile eye exam started with Abby Ayoub and her dream to correct vision problems of the estimated 16 million Americans who have undiagnosed and untreated vision impairments. Most children don’t get the eye attention they require for several reasons, including parents not having time to take them to the doctor, families without insurance and a lack of transportation.
So far Optical Academy has traveled to over 15,000 onsite events and screened and examined over a million students.
Lillian Loera of the Ceres Unified School District’s Family Resource Center helped connect CUSD to Legacy, said Narayan.
