Vision and hearing loss affect a significant portion of our population. Early detection and treatment can prevent permanent and debilitating loss of sight and language and reading impairments caused by undetected hearing loss. The California Education code recognizes this fact and mandates periodic screenings of students vision and hearing.
In the Travis Unified School District, our school district nurse Kathy Bourassa, screens the vision and hearing of all kindergarten, second, fifth, and eight grade students. She also screens the hearing of all 10th grade students in the district.
By the end of the school year, Ms. Bourassa will have screened over 2000 students.
If a student fails vision and/or hearing screening, a referral is mailed to the parents of the student. The referral requests that the parent take the student to a health specialist for a more detailed assessment. The referral also requests that the specialist complete the bottom part of the referral which the parent is to return to the school.
Many times neither the student nor the parents are aware that the student has a vision or hearing problem until a referral is received. If your child receives a vision and/or hearing referral, please take the time to consult with your child's health care specialist.
