Texans Can Academy - Dallas Pleasant Grove and the Essilor Vision Foundation partnered to provide students with free eye exams and glasses earlier this month. Through the Kids Vision For Life program, an astounding 147 students at this campus received free exams and glasses in one day. This is the largest amount of free glasses to students the program has provided in a single day at any Texans Can Academy campus in the three years they have partnered together.

“Texans Can Academy - Dallas Pleasant Grove is thankful for the Kids Vision For Life program and all it has done to help the students,” said Texans Can Academy - Dallas Pleasant Grove Principal Mene Khepera. “Healthy vision is vital to a student advancing in their education and the students love being involved in the process by picking out their own glasses. Not only does the program improve the students’ vision by providing free glasses, but it also improves the students’ focus and motivation in the classroom.”

Kids Vision For Life has worked with Texans Can Academies for low-cost vision services since 2015. They provide direct vision services to students through mobile clinics and are able to make prescription glasses the same day as the on-site exam. Texans Can Academy absorbs the $50 fee per student for eyeglasses, frames and lenses, freeing students and their families of any financial responsibility.

Texans Can Academy - Dallas Pleasant Grove also partners with a low-cost vision clinic where qualified students can get glasses for just $10 a pair. In addition, each campus recently purchased a Plusoptix Vision Screener, which is a handheld device that takes less than a second to determine whether a student needs glasses or not. The new equipment will help staff at each campus test every incoming student for vision problems.

Since the partnership began, the Essilor Vision Foundation has contributed vision services to eight out of the 14 total Texans Can Academy campuses. Over 4,500 Texans Can Academies’ students have received free glasses through the program and during the 2018-19 school year-to-date, more than 400 of their students have received eye exams and new glasses.

Texans Can Academies welcome the Kids Vision For Life program to campuses as needed during each school year. The schools uphold the mission of providing students with solutions to any basic human need in order for all students to attain an education without any barriers. Many of the students who attend the schools experience barriers to their education such as poverty, little access to basic resources, early parenthood and more. Today, Texans Can has 14 campuses located in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio and has impacted the lives of over 151,000 students. 

For more information about Essilor Vision Foundation or Kids Vision For Life, please visit www.evfusa.org. For more information about Texans Can Academies, please visit www.texanscan.org.