Grant Wood AEA receives no complaints about discontinuing vision screening

Grant Wood Area Education Agency officials haven't received complaints regarding the decision to discontinue vision screenings for all elementary students.

The 2009-10 school year is the first in which the agency hasn't screened kindergarten through sixth grade students.

The decision was made after a review of others AEA throughout a state found that Grant Wood was the only AEA still doing multi-grade level vision screenings.

“We determined that if we are to work as a statewide system, we needed to align our services with those offered by the other AEAs,” said George Held, Grant Wood AEA's spokesman.

Grant Wood still performs vision screenings for kindergarten students, kindergarten roundup and early childhood special education programs.

The agency also will screen students upon request. Held said it's likely this option that has resulted in no complaints.

“If there's a child that needs to be screened, they get screened,” he said.

Vision services were reassigned to the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School as part of a statewide realignment. Grant Wood staff members who worked with students who had vision problems now work out of the school in Vinton.

The Statewide System for Vision Services provides a services for students who are blind or visually impaired. The school does not perform vision screenings.