The Montezuma-Cortez school district recently announced a LOR Foundation donation of $9,048 that has allowed the district to purchase vision screening equipment.
The device, called the Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screener, can identify “up to six amblyopic risk factors” that can cause blindness or impaired vision in children.
The device can test for myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, anisometropia, aniscocoria and strabismus.
The image of the child’s eye is captured from a “noninvasive, three-foot distance using the fixation target and sounds that keep a child’s focus.” A touch screen will provide instant results after the test.
This device retails for about $8,760.
According to Jaclyn Hall, district health services director, the district screens students’ eyes to help identify who may be at risk for vision problems or who may be in need of glasses.
Though they don’t diagnose, they can refer students to an ophthalmologist for further screening and diagnosis, if needed.
“It’s a relatively inexpensive way to identify students that might be at risk, and then we refer out to an eye care professional to diagnose them and treat them with glasses or whatever they need,” Hall said.
The instrument utilized by the district scans the eye and lets the screening adult know whether students pass. If a student “fails,” they are referred to a doctor.
“It works really well for really young students, like our preschool and kindergarten and nonverbal students that we have,” Hall said. “It doesn’t actually measure visual acuity. It just informs us about the presence of risk factors that could lead to visual problems.”
Hall spoke of one kindergartner who didn’t pass the scan and was sent to the eye doctor. It turned out the student needed glasses, and they might not have known for a while, if not for the routine scan.
“It’s to help them so they can see instructions and stuff like that,” Hall said. “It’s a pretty easy tool to use, and our community is so fortunate to have the LOR Foundation and Nikki Crowley. They are a huge asset to our community.”
The district tests students according to state standards and guidelines set in place by the Colorado Department of Education. Not all grades are screened. If a teacher is concerned about a student’s vision, however, the student can get screened.
“If we have a teacher that’s like, ‘Hey, this student is squinting a lot in class, can you check their vision really fast?’ we can do it for them,” Hall said.
As of this writing, the CDE’s page detailing vision screening guidelines was not available on its website.
