Mateo, a third grader at a school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, used to struggle academically. He did his work slowly and with a pained look due to chronic headaches. His teacher found it difficult to watch him work as he suffered in this way. Then, in October of the 2012-2013 school year, Mateo received his first complete eye exam, revealing a profound need for glasses. His glasses would be ordered and delivered that same month.  Unfortunately, Mateo was scheduled to take a standardized test—the MEAPs—the next day.  Dr. Renée Mika, an optometrist, built Mateo a pair of temporary glasses to be used during testing, which became known as his “Magic MEAP Glasses,” without which Mateo would have surely struggled.  Since receiving his “real” glasses, his teacher notes, “He has been soaring! All areas of his academics have gone up; he is much faster and more accurate at completing his work. He no longer has a pained look on his face. He is, overall, a more happy and confident boy.”  

Mateo’s eye exam and glasses were provided at his school at no cost to his parents through a travelling, school-based vision program called See to Succeed (S2S), a Cherry Street Health Services (CSHS) program. S2S provides comprehensive eye exams for school children in an effort to increase access to eye care and reduce uncorrected refractive error (far-sightedness, near-sightedness, and astigmatism).  S2S is both innovative—it’s the first program of its kind in the state of Michigan—and demonstrative of best practices. Other programs have provided vision services to school age children before, but many lacked sustainability and comprehensive services, including dilation and the ability to order and dispense glasses on site. S2S utilizes existing resources by working with school-based clinics, school nurses, the local health department, and by empowering parents of children to take advantage of resources that they already have, such as Medicaid. S2S works closely with multiple school districts to provide long-term, sustainable vision care. In fact, S2S recently joined forces with school-based dental and medical care under the auspices of CSHS’s School Linked Health Programs. Additionally, the program offers vision and eye health services to uninsured children at no cost to their parents, while providing referrals and access to follow-up care through CSHS. 

See to Succeed utilizes four service-oriented professionals: an optometrist, an ophthalmic technician, an optician, and a HealthCorps Navigator.  In its pilot year, S2S provided 856 complete eye exams. The need for the program was staggering. The team dispensed glasses to 603 students. 62.4% of the students received glasses for the first time ever, and 17.2% were for children without insurance. Additionally, 14.3% were diagnosed with amblyopia, a condition marked by reduced vision in one or both eyes.  If ignored, amblyopia can lead to permanent vision impairment and contribute to learning related difficulties. For these children, it wasn’t ignored, and in the 2013-2014 school year, many more students, like Mateo, will see things clearly for the very first time thanks to S2S.