The Benefit to Providing Students With Glasses at No Cost Is Easy to See

Eyeglasses are such a commonality that most people go through the day assuming that everyone who needs a pair of glasses already has them. Most people, perhaps, but certainly not the team behind Vision To Learn, who knows first-hand how children everywhere are having trouble learning at school solely because they can’t properly see. It’s a problem they’re all too familiar with and work to eradicate.

Since its founding in 2012, Vision To Learn (VTL) has been delivering glasses at no cost to children who need them in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and all over the country.

“Vision To Learn works to solve a widespread problem in American education,” says VTL’s National Director and Chief of Staff, Damian Carroll. “One in four students needs glasses to see the chalkboard, read the book, or otherwise engage in the classroom.” 

How can there be so many students without their necessary glasses? Carroll points out that the issue for students isn’t necessarily one of affordability, usually it’s about a lack of access, stemming from the seldom-addressed effects of institutional poverty. It could be parents working two jobs and not having the time to take their child to an eye doctor’s appointment. Other times, it’s a transportation issue.

These are barriers easily overcome thanks to the services that Vision To Learn provides. Instead of getting the child to the eye doctor’s office, they deliver the doctor’s office straight to the children at their schools in the form of a “mobile vision clinic.” Licensed optometrists roll up to the school grounds in a fully-equipped office within a Sprinter van, providing students with vision screenings, eye exams, and a pair of glasses for each student who needs them – all at no cost to the student or their family.

You can think of Vision To Learn as a sort of Santa Claus for visually impaired children. One might be surprised by the sheer number of students who benefit from these mobile visits: Anywhere from a quarter to a third of each school’s students will get the glasses they need thanks to these programs.

And while clear vision is a wonderful enough benefit in its own right, there are still several more benefits, namely that students empowered with proper eyesight show remarkable improvement in learning at school. According to a John Hopkins School of Education study on the subject, providing glasses to students in need is the equivalent of adding two to six months of classroom time to their school year. That’s more effective than providing students with an iPad, and for kids with the toughest learning challenges, as effective as providing one-on-one tutoring.

“It’s rewarding to see how tangible and concrete our impact is,” says Carroll. “On any given school day in Los Angeles, there are eight mobile clinics helping hundreds of kids. There were 100,000 eye exams conducted within the 2023-24 school year alone.”

Vision To Learn’s program is a well-oiled machine and children across California are all the better for the services they provide. “I would say we are the leader in this field nationally,” says Carroll. “Other cities and states are taking note of our success.”