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In our 2025 Vision Report Card, we advocate:
- for all children preK-12 be screened annually. (We have a group of Augusta Medical and Emory Ophthalmology students conducting research as to whether and how each school district addresses vision screening.)
- for a waiver for our tele-optometry program to allow us to provide services in churches, community centers, etc., because of space issues in some rural licensed clinics.
- for funding to expand our optometry staff to serve more school children, ultimately statewide.
In 2024, Georgia ranked 26th in the nation for reading literacy, a score that the schools and legislators would like to see improved.
State Representative Kim Schofield has drafted a bill, the “Georgia Student Vision and Literacy Readiness Act”, to increase the requirement for schools to conduct vision testing with portable autorefractors.
We urgently need your help with letters of
support for this bill.
Because literacy rates are low in Georgia, this Act recommends “No later than August 1, 2027, each local school system and public school shall ensure that every student enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12 in such school system or school receives a vision screening upon initial enrollment and at each of the following levels: kindergarten and grades one, three, five, seven, and ten. Local school systems and public schools may conduct additional vision screenings as resources permit.” This bill provides access to funding for exams and eyeglasses as needed.
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