During his 2024 State of the State Address, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced plans to form a Children’s Vision Strike Force to ensure every student who fails a vision screening has a follow up comprehensive eye exam and is able to receive glasses if they need them.
According to Ohio Department of Health (ODH) surveys, many Ohio students who fail a vision screening at their school never receive a follow-up comprehensive eye exam. In the 2022-2023 school year alone, it is estimated that at least 35,000 students who needed glasses did not receive them. Barriers to follow-up eye care include a lack of time, lack of insurance, lack of transportation, or a lack of providers in their area.
However, there are some local nonprofit organizations in Ohio who are working alongside school districts to provide vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to students in high-need communities – all at no cost to students or their families.
The Strike Force has been tasked with working quickly to build upon this existing framework to take these proven models statewide.
The Strike Force consists of a group of experts in the eye care and education fields, as well as vision advocacy leaders and state policymakers. The group is chaired by ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff, M.D., MBA.
MEMBERS
On May 16, 2024, Governor Mike DeWine announced the Children’s Vision Strike Force members. The governor and First Lady Fran DeWine also visited with students from Oxford Elementary School in Cleveland Heights. Students received new prescription glasses provided by the Vision to Learn program, a non-profit that works with schools to provide vision screening eye exams, and glasses to students in high-need communities.
- Bruce Vanderhoff, M.D., MBA, Director, Ohio Department of Health (Chair)
- Sergul Erzurum, M.D., Co-Founder & Board President, Sight for All United; Vision to Learn Ohio Advisory Board Member
- Shane Foster, O.D., Athens Eye Care Mobile Clinic; Chair, Vision to Learn Ohio Advisory Board; and Immediate Past President, Ohio Optometric Association
- Jeffrey J. Walline, O.D., PhD, Acting Dean, The Ohio State University College of Optometry
- Stephen D. Dackin, Director, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
- Kara Wente, Director, Ohio Department of Children and Youth
- Maureen Corcoran, M.S. Ed., Director, Ohio Department of Medicaid
- Anne Gonzales, Executive Director, Ohio Vision Professionals Board
- Dion Manley, Board Member, Gahanna-Jefferson City Schools; Optician
- Paul Imhoff, Ed.D., Director of Government Relations, Buckeye Association of School Administrators
- Elizabeth Muckley, O.D., CEO and Executive Director, Ohio Optometric Association
- Walker Motley, M.S., M.D., Ohio Ophthalmological Society, Cincinnati Children’s Pediatric Ophthalmologist
- Amy Pulles, CEO, Prevent Blindness Ohio
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