Announcement of assistance for getting Prescription glasses

Children who can see well learn well!

One-in-4 kids in grades 2-8 suffer from impaired vision and the parents are often unaware of this. Classroom learning is inadequate with blurry vision. Poor learning leads to more distractions and disruptions. Many middle school students spend significant amount of time in in-school detention which prevents the student from learning in-class. These ‘frequent flyers’ are not inherently misbehaving, but don’t realize their poor vision is the reason for minor, but frequent infractions which snowballs to become frequent flyers. Timely intervention in such cases with vision correction would often de-escalate and save a student from habitual misbehavior.

WISH for Vision is a community outreach project to provide assistance to deserving Arizona Public School students to obtain prescription glasses. Individuals, corporations, local businesses and various associations have been the driving force behind this outreach with their encouragement and generous donations. Having improved vision is important to achieve academic success. Most public schools are reasonably equipped to screen and identify the students who need glasses for vision correction. However for many parents and students, having the prescription for glasses is not the same as having the glasses.

Is poverty an obstacle? There may be multiple reasons for the inability to obtain prescription grasses, but the parents’ inability to fill the prescription for want of finance should not be a reason. WISH for Vision program is here to assist. The program was rolled out in school year 2018-19. Public schools in the State of Arizona will be our partners in ensuring that kids get the required glasses to achieve their academic success. Sorry, we do not accept request for contact lenses.

How to get the help…………? The steps are as follows-

1. If you have the prescription- Attempt to utilize available resources like family insurance, Lion’s The School nurse will contact WISH via email (admin@wishfoundationaz.org) about the need. LEA/Nurse must ensure compliance with FERPA rules. Do not send us any student information such as name. ID, sex, age, race, health, immigration status or address. We start a case file and assign a number for your request.

2. Go to Zenniopticals.com (vendor) and place the order (total value not more than $50 per prescription) and send a screenshot showing the invoice and the order to us by email.

3. WISH will honor the invoice and pay the vendor directly,

4. Vendor will prepare and mail the glasses to the school nurse (who will hand it over to the student).