Title: A resolution recognizing Vision To Learn as a national leader in improving access to prescription eyeglasses for students in low-income communities, thereby helping those students succeed in school, and for providing vision exams to 200,000 students since its founding.
Policy area: Health

Summary:
This resolution congratulates Vision To Learn on helping 200,000 students and expresses support for its mission to ensure that no child goes without the glasses needed to succeed in school and life.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 222 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 222

Recognizing Vision To Learn as a national leader in improving access to 
prescription eyeglasses for students in low-income communities, thereby 
  helping those students succeed in school, and for providing vision 
             exams to 200,000 students since its founding.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                 May 23 (legislative day, May 22), 2019

    Mr. Coons (for himself, Ms. Ernst, Ms. Harris, Mr. Wicker, Ms. 
   Stabenow, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Carper, Mr. Perdue, Mr. Menendez, Mr. 
Toomey, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Casey, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Rounds, 
 Mr. Tillis, Mr. Grassley, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Romney, Mr. 
Burr, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Schatz, Ms. Hirono, Mr. 
 Van Hollen, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Ms. Collins, Mrs. Feinstein, 
  Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Moran, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. 
 Booker, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Daines, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Thune, Mr. 
    Cardin, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Lankford, and Mr. Udall) submitted the 
        following resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing Vision To Learn as a national leader in improving access to 
prescription eyeglasses for students in low-income communities, thereby 
  helping those students succeed in school, and for providing vision 
             exams to 200,000 students since its founding.

Whereas, on March 27, 2012, Vision To Learn was founded by Austin and Virginia 
        Beutner in Los Angeles, California, to address the problem of students 
        in low-income communities lacking the glasses needed for those students 
        to succeed in school and in life;
Whereas Vision To Learn began with a single mobile vision clinic, staffed with 
        an eye doctor and an optician--

    (1) visiting Napa Street Elementary, a Los Angeles Unified School 
District campus in Northridge, California; and

    (2) providing 5 students with vision exams and prescription eyeglasses 
free of charge;

Whereas Vision To Learn operates 25 mobile vision clinics, which have provided 
        vision exams to 200,000 students in 13 States, including--

    (1) California;

    (2) Delaware;

    (3) Georgia;

    (4) Hawaii;

    (5) Iowa;

    (6) Louisiana;

    (7) Maryland;

    (8) Michigan;

    (9) Mississippi;

    (10) New Jersey;

    (11) North Carolina;

    (12) Pennsylvania; and

    (13) Virginia;

Whereas Vision To Learn has leveraged partnerships with State Medicaid programs 
        and other organizations, including the United Way of Iowa, Prevent 
        Blindness Iowa, and the Longwood Foundation in Delaware, to increase 
        program stability and further expand access to vision services;
Whereas Vision To Learn is leading an effort by educators and eye care 
        professionals to raise awareness of the inability of some students to 
        see clearly due to correctable myopia or hyperopia, a basic educational 
        hurdle impacting over 2,000,000 students nationwide that can be solved 
        by providing students with a basic vision exam and a pair of 
        prescription glasses;
Whereas the innovative mobile vision clinic model developed by Vision To Learn 
        delivers basic eye care to students at school, where the students are 
        every day, thereby bypassing common hurdles preventing children from 
        seeing an eye doctor, such as--

    (1) the inability of a parent or guardian to take time off of work;

    (2) a lack of transportation;

    (3) a shortage of eye care providers accepting Medicaid; and

    (4) a misunderstanding of the cost or necessity of eye care;

Whereas Vision To Learn has demonstrated the ability of mobile vision clinics to 
        provide access to care for students in both urban and rural communities;
Whereas, by reaching students who have never visited an eye doctor and providing 
        those students with a first pair of glasses, Vision To Learn introduces 
        students and parents to the need for ongoing eye care, making it more 
        likely that those students and parents will seek out regular exams from 
        a local optometrist or ophthalmologist;
Whereas the program developed by Vision To Learn identifies thousands of 
        students with more serious eye conditions and refers those students to 
        local eye doctors for follow-up exams, in many cases intervening before 
        students experience permanent vision loss;
Whereas, in an effort to quantify the impact of Vision To Learn on the ability 
        of students to access optometric care, the performance of students in 
        school, and the behavior of students in the classroom, the program 
        developed by Vision To Learn has been studied by health and educational 
        researchers at--

    (1) the University of California, Los Angeles, Mattel Children's 
Hospital (referred to in this preamble as ``UCLA Mattel Children's 
Hospital'');

    (2) the California Health and Human Services Agency, Department of 
Health Care Services; and

    (3) The Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute;

Whereas the study carried out by UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital found that--

    (1) after receiving glasses, students ``were able to pay better 
attention in class, were more engaged, and were more willing to complete 
their schoolwork, all of which contributed to better overall school 
performance''; and

    (2) ``Serving students in school rather than referring them to an 
outside optometrist increased both access to and use of glasses by both 
making it easier for families to obtain glasses and changing the school 
culture to decrease the stigma associated with wearing glasses.'';

Whereas Vision To Learn seeks to make the experience of getting glasses fun for 
        children--

    (1) by partnering with sports teams, such as--

    G    (A) the Los Angeles Dodgers;

    G    (B) the Los Angeles Clippers;

    G    (C) the Golden State Warriors;

    G    (D) the Atlanta Hawks;

    G    (E) the Detroit Pistons;

    G    (F) the San Jose Sharks; and

    G    (G) the Baltimore Ravens; and

    (2) by having professional athletes participate in events at schools 
where children get glasses;

Whereas the service level of Vision To Learn has grown an average of 50 percent 
        every year, bringing critical vision services to thousands of additional 
        children, with the ultimate goal that no child in the United States go 
        to school without the glasses needed for that child to see clearly;
Whereas Vision To Learn is a public-private partnership combining funding from 
        community and corporate foundations and private donors, reimbursement 
        from Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, and State and 
        local matching funds to support a sustainable program that will help 
        students for years to come;
Whereas Vision To Learn has demonstrated that the program model developed and 
        used by Vision To Learn represents a realistic, affordable pathway to 
        eliminating lack of glasses as an educational barrier to students 
        nationwide;
Whereas Vision To Learn has collaborated with partners in the eye-health and 
        education sectors who have greatly aided Vision To Learn in reaching the 
        milestone of helping 200,000 students, including--

    (1) Rotary International Clubs;

    (2) The Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute;

    (3) the Essilor Vision Foundation;

    (4) Warby Parker;

    (5) Helen Keller International ChildSight;

    (6) the University of California, Los Angeles, Stein Eye Institute;

    (7) Project Vision Hawai`i;

    (8) Western University College of Optometry;

    (9) Prevent Blindness Northern California;

    (10) Classic Optical Laboratories;

    (11) Capital Optical;

    (12) Klauer Optical;

    (13) the California School Nurses Organization;

    (14) Hawaii Keiki: Healthy & Ready to Learn;

    (15) Conexus;

    (16) the Baltimore City Health Department;

    (17) the Detroit Health Department;

    (18) the Kent County Health Department;

    (19) the California Teachers Association; and

    (20) school nurses throughout the areas served by Vision To Learn;

Whereas Vision To Learn has been recognized as a leader in the field--

    (1) by the Campaign For Grade-Level Reading, which named Vision To 
Learn a ``Pacesetter Program'' in 2014;

    (2) by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for 
Hispanics, which named Vision To Learn a ``Bright Spot in Hispanic 
Education'' in 2015;

    (3) by the California Teachers Association, which presented the ``State 
Gold Award'' to Vision To Learn in 2013;

    (4) in letters of commendation from--

    G    (A) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi;

    G    (B) Representative Maxine Waters; and

    G    (C) the Ronald Reagan Library; and

    (5) in newspaper op-eds by--

    G    (A) Senator Chris Coons;

    G    (B) Delaware Governor Jack Markell;

    G    (C) Richmond, Virginia, Mayor Levar Stoney;

    G    (D) Long Beach, California, Mayor Robert Garcia;

    G    (E) Detroit, Michigan, Mayor Mike Duggan;

    G    (F) Wilmington, Delaware, Mayor Michael Purzycki; and

    G    (G) former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour;

Whereas, according to the American Optometric Association, uncorrected vision 
        conditions affect 1 in every 4 children, yet only 39 percent of students 
        referred to an eye exam through a routine vision screening actually end 
        up seeing an eye doctor, and this discrepancy is far worse in high-
        poverty communities of color; and
Whereas addressing the basic eye care needs of students is an often overlooked 
        but critical strategy to improve the educational attainment of those 
        students: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) congratulates Vision To Learn on helping 200,000 
        students;
            (2) recognizes Vision To Learn as a national leader in 
        providing school-based vision care and commends the strides the 
        organization has made in that effort; and
            (3) supports the mission of Vision To Learn to ensure that 
        no child goes without the glasses needed for that child to 
        succeed in school and in life.
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