Since 2015, Iowa law has required all kindergarteners and third graders to be screened for vision issues and referred for care if they “fail” the eye exam. Ultimately it is the parent’s responsibility to have the child screened and provide “proof” of the screening to their child’s school, however the efforts of three non-profit organizations assist the parents and schools in this effort.
This report presents data regarding the number of children who received vision screenings by the three primary non-profit organizations that provide child vision screenings in Iowa schools: 1) Prevent Blindness Iowa, 2) Iowa KidSight, and 3) Vision To Learn Iowa. Data presented in this report were received from each of the non-profit organizations by researchers at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry for the 2022-2023 school year.
Overall, there were vision screenings conducted with school aged children in every county in Iowa by at least one of the three non-profits. 19 counties appeared to have more limited penetration (less than 50%) by the three non-profit vision screening programs.