Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Spring Shadows Elementary student Chloe was all smiles as she chose a multi-hued frame for her new glasses. 

“I am excited about my rainbow glasses,” said Chloe. “I will be a rainbow princess!”

Thirty students from Edgewood and Spring Shadows Elementary Schools recently traveled by bus to the Houston Health Department’s West End Clinic to get their eyes tested and measured for a free pair of glasses. 

A program called See to Succeed is a public-private partnership created to solve health issues for children, ages 6 to 18, in the greater Houston area. Health professionals, City of Houston employees and volunteers run clinics several times a year for students with unresolved vision needs.

Since the program’s pilot in 2011, more 65,000 pairs of glassed have been distributed to students. 

School nurses at Spring Shadows and Edgewood worked hard to pre-screen students, and secure parental consents to bring qualifying students to the Health Department’s vision clinic. The See to Succeed program is helpful to families who face financial and logistical barriers to getting vision help for their kids. 

Judie Cribbs, the school nurse at Edgewood Elementary has been bringing students to the clinic for more than five years. She remembers when a young boy first put on his See to Succeed program glasses and said, “There are numbers on the clock?!” 

She knew then that all the paperwork and logistical arrangements were worth it. 

Students from Spring Shadows Elementary shared a bus to the clinic, under the guidance of their school nurse, Karen Simpson. “We like doing this together [with Edgewood],” she said. “It is such a great program. We will keep coming year after year.”

The See to Succeed vision clinic runs like a well-oiled machine from the moment the bus arrives. Friendly volunteers usher students through various procedures in multiple exam rooms to get to the best part -- the station where they get to choose the frames for their glasses. 

They start in a room with multiple eye testing machines manned by University of Houston optometry students and used to determine whether eye dilations are necessary. Next students are assessed on their abilities in a variety of areas: distance, depth perception, color recognition and near vision. Volunteers then lead the students to Doctors’ Lane, where 16 optometrists determine the correction prescription for each child.

With prescription in hand, the students enter a room with hundreds of frame choices, and volunteers there measure and fit the glasses for the excited kids.

Chloe also exclaimed that going to all the stations at the clinic seemed like “walking through a castle,” since there were many twists and turns through the corridors and exam rooms. 

The glasses will be delivered to the schools in about four to five weeks. By overcoming the hurdles of poor eyesight, these fortunate students will be “clearly” ready to make the “succeed” part of the See to Succeed program a reality.

And at least one little girl will also be transformed into a rainbow princess!

If your campus is interested in learning about this amazing program, please contact Cathy Parker at 832-362-2338 or cathy.parker@houstontx.gov.

Submitted by Becky Wuerth, SBISD Communications
Becky.wuerth@springbranchisd.com