DECEMBER 2025

Your generous donation will directly support the Center's efforts in various impactful areas, including:

• Educational Programs: Providing essential information to parents, caregivers, and educators about the importance of early vision screening and regular eye exams.
• Children’s Vision Screening Certification: Offering a 3-year, nationally recognized certification program based on national guidelines and best practices.
• Advocacy: Advocating for policies that promote children’s vision and eye health at the local, state, and national levels, ensuring that all children receive the care they need.

We’re grateful for your commitment and hard work to ensure that children are able to see and learn. Your contribution this holiday season can provide a child with the gift of sight and the opportunity to reach their full potential. The urgency is real. Your timely donation can make an immediate impact, providing screenings, exams, and glasses to those in need.

• $10: Provides teaching and materials for a new eye health education lesson, ensuring children receive essential knowledge to care for their eyes.
• $25: Produces one new resource for vision screening, such as a list of evidence-based tools to ensure proper children’s screenings.
• $100: Supports technical assistance in one state, expanding our reach and enabling us to provide crucial support to more communities.
• $175: Provides a scholarship for a school nurse to complete the vision screening certification program, empowering them to help others.
• $300: Covers the cost of an eye exam and a pair of glasses for a child, giving them the tools to succeed in school and beyond.

Imagine the impact of your donation: a child who can see clearly, learn effectively, and grow into a confident, successful adult. Your contribution, no matter the size, can give sight to a child’s future!

Prevent Blindness wishes you and the families you serve the happiest of holidays this December, and a happy and healthy 2026 filled with good sight! We at the NCCVEH and Prevent Blindness thank you for all you do to promote children’s vision and eye health.

With winter break around the corner, this is a great time for you and your colleagues to take the Children’s Vision Screening Certification Course from Prevent Blindness. This is an online, on-demand, self-paced course that provides learning in common vision disorders, age-appropriate vision screening tools, and educational resources.

Eye injuries are a major and preventable cause of acquired permanent vision loss in children, especially loss of vision in one eye.

Did you know?

• Eye injuries in children often occur during play.
• In the United States, children under age 18 years account for up to one-third of emergency-department visits for eye-injuries. 

Check out the resources on the Prevent Blindness website, including Home and Toy Eye Safety for Children, and, specifically, the Tips for Choosing Safe Toys checklist. Also see the fact sheet on eye injuries created by the NCCVEH for the Office of Head Start’s National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety. 

During the winter months, children may be inside for longer periods and use screens more often. Children’s screen time has become a concern for many parents and educators.

Digital screens have become a common part of a child’s world, being used for interactive play, reading, learning, and to socially connect. The daily time a child spends viewing a digital screen (including a cell phone, tablet, laptop, computer, TV, or gaming screen) can add up quickly. Increased time using digital devices, especially when held close to the child’s face, can make undiagnosed vision problems worse, or create new symptoms.

Screen time also affects academic achievement. For example, a 2025 study in Canada involving 3,322 third grade students and 2,084 sixth grade students found that higher levels of screen time were associated with lower academic achievement in elementary school. Each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with 9%-10% lower odds of achieving academic levels in grade 3 reading and grade 6 math. Find more information on this study here. 

Leaders in children’s health encourage families to monitor a child’s use of digital devices. Families can also create a Family Media Plan to reduce the impact of long-term use of digital devices on their child’s health.

Prevent Blindness and the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health offer a free, downloadable poster in English and Spanish to guide best practices for children and digital screens. You can also find tips on Possible Signs of a Vision Problem in Children and information on myopia.

PreventBlindness.org | nationalcenter.preventblindness.org