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Columbus, OH (August 1, 2026) - As many families are preparing for a new school year, Prevent Blindness Ohio has declared August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month. A variety of free resources from Prevent Blindness and its National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH ) are available to the public, educators, and allied health professionals on children’s vision issues including web pages, printable fact sheets and social media graphics in English and Spanish, as well as expert and patient videos.
“We know that being able to see clearly is a strong predictor of academic success,” said Amy Pulles, President & CEO, Prevent Blindness Ohio. “We’ve developed expert-approved resources that are designed to help kids reach their highest potential through healthy vision, for this school year and for life.”
Uncorrected vision problems can impair child development, interfere with learning, and even lead to permanent vision loss. According to the Prevent Blindness Children’s Vision Health Map and corresponding report, compiled in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System, vision issues in children are common in the United States:
- One out of every 122 children has permanent vision loss.
- There are 25 percent more girls with vision loss than boys.
- One out of every 45 children in Medicaid/CHIP had an amblyopia or strabismus diagnosis in 2019. (This includes one out of every 94 children with amblyopia and one out of every 70 with strabismus.)
- Among the community-level indicators included in the Prevent Blindness Children’s Vision Health Map, vision loss is most closely correlated with the prevalence of children in poverty (+55%).
- Nearly 4 million children in Medicaid/CHIP received at least one pair of covered eyeglasses in 2019.
Prevent Blindness Ohio offers free materials on children’s vision issues, including myopia (nearsightedness), amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), retinopathy of prematurity, and the effects of juvenile diabetes on vision. Prevent Blindness has also developed new resources on patching for amblyopia, including video testimonials from children who are patching, and a new Focus on Eye Health Expert Series episode, featuring Sandra S. Block, OD, MEd, MPH, president of the World Council of Optometry, professor emeritus of the Illinois College of Optometry, and Emeritus Member of the Prevent Blindness Board of Directors.
Preventing eye injuries is a critical way to prevent vision loss in children. Dedicated resources on safety and eye protection including contact lenses, sports, UV, screen time and digital devices, and home and toy eye safety are also available.
Prevent Blindness and Prevent Blindness Ohio are working to establish a national approach to children’s vision, and continues to advocate for the recently reintroduced Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children (EDVI) Act, H.R. 2527. Led by Congressional Vision Caucus co-chairs Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) and Marc A. Veasey (D-TX-33), and recently co-sponsored by Rep. Janelle S. Bynum (D-OR-5), Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-2), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-DC-At Large), and Rep. Melanie A. Stansbury (D-NM-1), this bipartisan legislation, if passed, will establish the first national program specifically aimed at improving children’s vision and eye health. The EDVI Act is currently supported by more than 100 state and national organizations. To learn more about the EDVI Act, and how to contact your representatives to be a voice for children’s vision, visit the Prevent Blindness Legislative Action Center.
For general information on children’s eye health and safety, visit PreventBlindness.org/your-childs-sight, or contact Prevent Blindness Ohio at
(800) 301-2020 or pbohio.org.
For information on the NCCVEH and its variety of programs including certification in children’s vision screening procedures and state-by-state information on vision screening requirements, visit NationalCenter.PreventBlindness.org. Vision care financial assistance resources in English and Spanish may also be found at: PreventBlindness.org/vision-care-financial-assistance-information.
About Prevent Blindness Ohio
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness serves all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to contribute, call 800-301-2020 or donate here. Visit us at pbohio.org. Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/pbohio/ and X: twitter.com/PB_Ohio
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