[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 87 (Thursday, May 23, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3116-S3117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 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

  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:

                              S. Res. 222

       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--
          (A) the Los Angeles Dodgers;
          (B) the Los Angeles Clippers;
          (C) the Golden State Warriors;
          (D) the Atlanta Hawks;
          (E) the Detroit Pistons;
          (F) the San Jose Sharks; and
          (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--
          (A) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi;
          (B) Representative Maxine Waters; and
          (C) the Ronald Reagan Library; and
       (5) in newspaper op-eds by--
          (A) Senator Chris Coons;
          (B) Delaware Governor Jack Markell;
          (C) Richmond, Virginia, Mayor Levar Stoney;
          (D) Long Beach, California, Mayor Robert Garcia;
          (E) Detroit, Michigan, Mayor Mike Duggan;
          (F) Wilmington, Delaware, Mayor Michael Purzycki; and
          (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

[[Page S3117]]

     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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