"Vision vans" will be available for students at three local schools in the Portland area Monday-Wednesday, Jan. 6-8.
Boston-based 20/20 Onsite will provide no-cost vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to dozens of Portland Public School students. The van will visit two elementary schools, Reiche Community School, and Gerald Talbot Community School, and adult students Portland Adult Education.
School nurses have identified more than 100 students who are in need of optometrist visits, and have already set up times for them to visit the van during the three days. If all goes well, the vision vans should be able to get 45-50 children in for appointments, and another 20 adult students at Portland Adult Schools.
Students who participate will receive a comprehensive eye exam and will be able to select at least one free pair of prescription eyeglasses.
The program will address an issue that school nurses have been working on for long time, said Tina Veilleux, Portland Public Schools' nurse coordinator.
“For years, Portland school nurses have cobbled together a patchwork of free and low-cost vision programs that come and go," she said in a statement. "It is extremely difficult for families to get glasses because few optometrists accept MaineCare for glasses. There is a backlog of students in need of vision exams and glasses.”
Portland Public Schools is Maine’s largest school district, with nearly 6,600 students, and it’s also the most diverse. About one third of the district’s students come from homes where languages other than English are spoken — a total of 59 languages.
Most schools administer basic eye tests, but if a follow-up is needed with an optometrist outside of school, that's where some students can fall through the cracks, either due to financial hardship, scheduling issues or language barriers.
"It really shows what can happen when we give the problem solvers like nurses and teachers the resources they need to care for our community," said Sarah Southard, vice president of the Board of Directors Foundation for Portland Public Schools, which raised funds for the program. "All of these children will now be able to read and learn because of their efforts."
The Foundation for Portland Public Schools hired the vision vans for three days in January as something of a stop-gap: a critical mass of students in need will be able to receive vision exams, and glasses if necessary, within a short time period. But, the problem will persist if the issue isn't addressed in the long term, Veilleux told Maine Public.
That's why, in addition to the January vision van visits, Greater Portland Health, which provides the online health clinic care at Casco Bay, Deering and Portland high schools, will be expanding their services to provide full vision exams. Students will be able to order glasses at school through MaineCare, without needing an outside optometry appointment.
Southard said the school nurses were the driving force in creating this solution for students.
"They really take it seriously, offering them health care in school and making sure that that they can help them meet their potential," she said. "Because it's pretty hard to learn to read if you can't see."