VisionServe Alliance Continues To Support the
EDVI/Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children Act!

VisionServe joins Prevent Blindness and any other organizations in our field to compel congress to support the Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children Act (H.R. 2527) in any final health package considered at the end of this year.

Despite the presence of numerous public health programs that support early childhood development, including children’s hearing and oral health, there is currently no federally funded program or initiative in the US that specifically addresses children’s vision or that fosters a cohesive and equitable system of eye health for children.

According to the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health, significant disparities exist in children’s vision and eye health outcomes and access to eye care across the US. State laws to address children’s vision vary widely in approaches and often lack protocols for both referrals to eye care providers and documentation to ensure eye care was received. States may also lack the necessary resources to adequately capture data on rates of received eye care, leading to challenges in addressing existing disparities among demographic sub-populations or in rural or under-resourced communities.

The EDVI Act will establish state and community-based EDVI programs across the United States to address children’s vision and eye health. The goal of the EDVI Act is to ensure that every child with a possible vision problem is identified and connected to appropriate eye care, to support early childhood professionals, health care providers, and families with updated and evidence-based vision screening methods and established referrals to care, and implement follow-up protocols to ensure that children who need eye care treatment receive it before a vision problem leads to potential vision loss.

The EDVI Act models the bipartisan success of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program that has drastically increased the rates screening and referral to care for infants with hearing loss since 1999. The EDVI program would be the first national-level program established to specifically address children’s vision and eye health in the United States.

Click the button to read the Congressional EDVI Act sign-on letter…

If you have any questions regarding the legislation or would like additional information, please contact Sara Everett Brown, Director of Government Affairs at Prevent Blindness, at severettbrown@preventblindness.org.

Read the HeadStart article in the Chicago Tribune…