New Program Provides Free Eye Exam and Glasses to DPSCD Students
5000 Detroit students will receive free eye exams and glasses from new partnership.
A new program will make it easier for low-income students to get glasses.
The Detroit Health Department and the national non-profit “Vision to Learn” are partnering to offer students free eye-care.
Doctor Abdul El-Sayed is the Executive Director and Health Officer for the Health Department.
“Vision to Learn” gives us the opportunity to hand the ball off optometrist in effect and deliver glasses to children at school. So every child is going to be screened. And for those children who have abnormalities, any sort of vision deficits, we’ll get them into the system and get them a pair of glasses,” El-Sayed says.
According to the health department, 17 percent of students screened through the department’s vision program fail an eye test but only two percent report to follow-up appointments.
“Vision to Learn” will send a mobile clinic to Detroit schools to give all students who fail the screening a free eye exam.
