Better vision: Erie School District takes step in helping students with poor eyesight
If a child can’t see correctly, how can they learn at school?
A study by Portland State University revealed that 20% of students have some sort of vision problem. So how does a teacher in the Erie School District truly know if a child’s learning struggle is coming from poor vision if it is not reported?
According to Kerry Roach, the health service supervisor for the Erie School District, the district has discovered many students have visionary issues.
The school district has only been able to send notices home to parents advising them of the child’s poor vision.
“The unfortunate thing is our referral completion rates are pretty low,” Roach said. “The parents don’t have the time or the financial resources to take the children to the specialist. That certainly over the years is where their vision gets worse and worse as they grow. We see the effects on their academic successes and their testing scores.”
The Erie Public Schools Board of Directors agreed to find a company that could provide the screenings and corrective lenses paid for by $80,000 in stimulus money in the budget.
Initially the board stated that they were going with a company called Vision To Learn, an organization that provides screenings, eye exams and glasses to children in low-income communities, at no cost to children or families. It was a unanimous approval, until the company could not provide doctors.
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Board turns to United Way of Erie County for solution
The board, which has been working with United Way of Erie County since 2017, turned to the nonprofit for help. The United Way provided a solution through Glasses2Classes.
“We’ve piloted a couple different vision initiatives over the last couple of years, but we reached out to Glasses2Classes because they can do this at scale," said Mike Jaruszewicz, senior vice president of community impact for United Way of Erie County. “We’re able to service all of the elementary and middle school students ... in relatively short periods of time."
He added that Glasses2Classes is able to go into schools, set up shop and provide services to students in-house.
Glasses2Classes to provide eye exams, eyewear to students
Glasses2Classes is a national mobile eye care and eyewear provider which brings onsite eye exams, mobile eye tests and eyewear to students.
The Glasses2Classes program will give more than 7,000 students in Erie’s Public School’s a free vision screening along with glasses if necessary.
“With bringing Glasses2Classes to the school building, we’re providing that opportunity free of cost for the families,” said Roach. “I’m very excited because not every family has the opportunity or time to take their child to see an eye specialist or have the finances available to purchase glasses.”
The Optical Academy Mobile Vision Team will set up at each school beginning Feb. 20 at East Middle School, 1001 Atkins St., to provide screenings, eye exams and offer more than 500 different types of glasses to students.
Glasses will be ready for pickup the same day, courtesy of the onsite lab.
What Erie schools will Glasses2Classes assist?
The following is a list of Glasses2Classes participating schools:
Diehl Elementary School at 2327 Fairmount Parkway
Edison Elementary School at 1921 E. Lake Road
Grover Cleveland Elementary School at 1540 W. 38th St.
Harding Elementary School at 820 Lincoln Ave.
Jefferson Elementary School at 230 E. 38th St.
JoAnna Connell Elementary School at 1820 E. 38th St.
Lincoln Elementary School at 831 E. 31st St.
McKinley Elementary School at 933 E. 22nd St.
Perry Elementary School at 955 W. 29th St.
Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School at 235 E. 11th St.
Strong Vincent Middle School at 1330 W. 8th St.
Woodrow Wilson Middle School at 718 E. 28th St.
Contact Nicholas Sorensen at nsorensen@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie School District, United Way bring Glasses2Classes to Erie
