Results of Eye Tests Alarm Educators

Roughly half the students tested at three Westside elementary schools during the past year were found to need glasses or to have other eye problems, raising concerns among some school officials about the potential effect of poor vision on classroom performance in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The screening of about 1,000 students by optometrists volunteering their services in a West Los Angeles Lions Club program prompted calls of alarm from some administrators. The officials say the lack of comprehensive, routine vision testing and a shortage of school nurses in the district are compounding the predicament.

“It’s a real problem,” said district administrator Stuart Bernstein, who oversees Hamilton, Palisades and University high schools and the grade school campuses that feed into them. “We have a serious shortage of nurses available for screenings, and we probably need them now more than ever.”

Virginia Hayes, head of the school district’s nurses, did not return calls seeking comment.

The screenings were held at Brentwood Science Magnet and Brockton Avenue and Charnock Road elementary schools. Of the students tested, 47% were found to have vision problems, the Lions Club optometrists said.

“At my school, it was 50%. I was shocked by the high numbers,” said Dianne Dash Island, principal of Brockton. “Teachers are saying, ‘No wonder.’ If children can’t see well, they can’t tell you, because they don’t know anything different. . . . Every school the Lions Club has visited is astounded.”

The service club’s outreach effort centers on eye care and improving vision. Its tests check for such things as myopia, astigmatism, visual acuity and external eye health. The exams go beyond eye-chart tests administered by school nurses, which are required only every three years.

Although parents are not supposed to rely on schools for comprehensive medical care, many do. Overworked parents and high health-care costs are cited as primary reasons that many children never get routine checkups. Yet for most schools, the full-time nurse is a thing of the past. District staffing shortages mean that many schools have a nurse on campus only two days a month.