October | 2026

Prevent Blindness is joining with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) for its annual “World Sight Day” initiative on Thursday, October 8. Please partner with us on raising awareness of children’s vision and eye health. Find great resources in our World Sight Day Toolkit offered in partnership with the National Association of School Nurses. You’ll find downloadable materials including bookmarks, stickers, books about vision, activities, and more.

The NCCVEH is a proud sponsor of “Safeguarding Sight: Pediatric Optometry Lecture Series” with speakers from Children’s Wisconsin on October 8, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Open to optometrists across the United States. The webinar offers case-based discussion and expert clinical insights to enhance the confidence, competence, and clinical readiness of community-based optometrists in providing exceptional care for young children. Participants can earn up to 1.5 COPE credits.

Become a Certified Children's Vision Screener

Every child deserves the chance to see clearly and succeed in the classroom, and the revised Prevent Blindness Children's Vision Screening Certification Course helps make that possible. The course includes the 2025 NCCVEH preschool vision screening recommendations, new guidance on screening infants and toddlers, and videos demonstrating screening with a variety of tools. Certified screeners also receive practical resources – from a conversation guide for addressing families' barriers to completing eye exams, to tips for helping children adjust to wearing prescribed glasses, to guidance on evaluating a screening program's effectiveness. With 4 to 6 Nursing Continuing Professional Development (NCPD) contact hours available, becoming certified is not only a chance to strengthen your skills but also to play a critical role in closing the gap between vision screening referrals and the confirmatory eye exams children need to succeed in the classroom.

Small Steps for Big Vision

A Conversation with Dr. Mary Noga

In a recent episode of Bold Blind Beauty's On A.I.R. podcast, hosts Sylvia and Gabby talked with NCCVEH partner Mary Noga, DNP, RN, PEL-CSN, NCSN, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the School Nurse Certification Program at the University of Illinois Chicago, about the Small Steps to Eye Care Action Plan: A Conversation Guide she implemented in a large IL school district. The conversation explores why so many children who don't pass a vision screening never complete an eye exam, the barriers families face along the way, and the partnerships that help close that gap. Screening alone can't help a child see and learn better; follow-through does.

Did you know that 45 million people in the United States wear contact lenses? October is Contact Lens Safety Month at Prevent Blindness. Old or ill-fitting contact lenses can scratch the eye. This is called a corneal abrasion. If a corneal abrasion is not treated, it can turn into a corneal ulcer – an open sore on the cornea, the clear part that covers the front of the eye. 

The best ways to avoid eye infections when using contact lenses are to:

• Wash hands before handling contact lenses
• Remove contact lenses before any activities with water
• Do not use water with contact lenses
• Follow your eye doctor's instructions for wearing and replacing contact lenses
• Use fresh solution to clean, rub, and rinse your contact lenses each time you remove them
• Clean contact lens case with fresh solution (not water)
• Keep your contact lenses outside the bathroom to reduce the risk of water contamination

Prevent Blindness offers a variety of free resources to help educate the public on ways to use contact lenses safely and effectively, including webpages, fact sheets, and social media graphics.

Beginning October 1, 2026, federal Medicaid and CHIP funding rules will change for certain noncitizens. Federal matching funds for full Medicaid and CHIP coverage will generally be limited to U.S. citizens and specified noncitizen categories. 

Importantly, this does not mean everyone in an affected immigration category will automatically lose Medicaid or CHIP. Some people may qualify based on another immigration status. Coverage may also remain available through emergency Medicaid or state-funded programs, and some states may choose to cover lawfully residing children and pregnant people.

For children and families, a disruption in Medicaid or CHIP coverage can also become a disruption in eye care. Medicaid and CHIP can help cover services such as comprehensive eye exams, eyeglasses, and follow-up treatment when an eye or vision problem is identified. CHIP vision benefits commonly include routine and medically necessary eye exams, prescription glasses, vision screenings, and specialty eye care.

For school nurses, administrators, and other school health professionals, this may mean some families have new questions about coverage or need help finding reliable information about where to turn for eye care.

Learn more:



• Prevent Blindness: Medicaid and CHIP Eye Care Benefits: Explains how Medicaid and CHIP may cover eye exams, glasses, and other vision care, including differences in coverage by age and state. Explore Medicaid and CHIP eye care benefits
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): The federal government’s guidance on the October 1 changes, including which noncitizen categories remain eligible for federal matching funds and what exceptions continue to apply. Read the CMS guidance
• KFF: How States Verify Citizenship and Immigration Status in Medicaid: A more detailed explainer on which groups may be affected and why current immigration-status information and eligibility verification will matter. Read the KFF explainer

For the third webinar of the 2026 Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health Webinar Series, join a funder, researcher, and individual living with a vision loss for a conversation about how well-resourced and thoughtfully planned patient and community partnership can turn lived experience into action and impact. Together, they will explore how patient expertise can strengthen research, inform decision-making, drive advocacy, and create lasting systems change—and how funders and community-based organizations can help create the space for human-centered engagement.

Every child deserves clear vision to learn, play, and thrive. Your support will make an immediate difference, especially as children are headed back to school. Please give today to help a child succeed in the classroom and beyond!

PreventBlindness.org | nationalcenter.preventblindness.org