COMPTON – Vision To Learn, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Compton Unified School District announced a groundbreaking new initiative to provide all 19,000 children in Compton schools with comprehensive eye care, at no cost to the children or their families.
Children in low-income communities often go without access to eye care. 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.
“Compton Unified is thrilled to be working with Vision To Learn and The Vision Center at Children’s Hospital LA, thanks to the grant from the Everychild Foundation,” said Compton Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Darin Brawly. “This initiative will ensure that every child in Compton Unified has access to essential vision care services, promoting their overall health, and contributing directly to their academic success.”
VTL has provided more than three million children with vision screenings, 560,000 with eye exams and 460,000 with glasses, all at no cost to children or their families. Twenty-seven percent 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 is the largest school-based provider of eye care in the country.
“This effort in Compton will be the first in the nation to provide every school child in a low-income community with comprehensive eye care, at scale,” said Austin Beutner, founder of Vision To Learn, “When kids come to school hungry, we feed them. We make sure students have the books and school materials they need and that every classroom has a great teacher. Why not eye care to make sure they can get the most out of their education?”
A portion of the children helped by Vision To Learn will need medical care beyond glasses, typically around five percent. The need for this additional care can be identified during an eye exam. The needs range from eye issues like amblyopia and strabismus to diabetes or a detached retina.
Vision To Learn refers these children to other medical providers for care, but sadly, there is no certainty they receive it due to lack of access, financial issues or other problems. That’s where Children’s Hospital LA (CHLA) comes in. The Vision Center at CHLA is world renowned for treating children with complex eye diseases and is the only center of its kind in the United States with expertise in every pediatric ophthalmologic subspecialty. Children identified by Vision To Learn’s optometrists who need additional care will be connected to specialists at CHLA through a combination of telemedicine consultation and clinical treatment.
Sophisticated new equipment on Vision To Learn mobile clinics will help Vision To Learn’s optometrists consult with CHLA eye experts in real-time, sharing data through web-enabled smart glasses and specialized cameras and ophthalmoscopes.
The children will be provided with additional care at CHLA at no cost to the child or their family, thanks to a $1 million grant from Everychild.
This is a first-in-the-nation effort to make sure 100% of kids in a low-income community get comprehensive eye care, at scale.
This effort by Vision To Learn, CHLA and Compton schools is further validation of how school-based services can help address children’s needs in low-income communities.
