PHOENIX – Many Arizona kids are heading back to school this month, and doctors say when they return to the classroom it's important to make sure they can see well.

About 80 percent of what a child learns at school happens visually. When children have undetected vision problems, said Dr. Amy Davis, a pediatric optometrist, they can miss out on major portions of their education.

"One in four school-aged children have vision problems," she said. "So it's a huge, huge issue to make sure that little people see well when they're in school."

Children who qualify for Medicaid or the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System are covered for vision exams and glasses up to age 21. For children who don't qualify for Medicaid and don't have vision insurance, a number of community programs offer free or low-cost vision screenings, including the Lion's Club's Kidsight program. More information for Arizona parents is online at eyesonlearning.org.

The American Optometric Association recommends children get their eyes checked starting at six months of age, then again at age 3. For schoolchildren, eye exams are recommended before first grade, then every two years after that.

According to Dr. Kelly Varney, an assistant professor at the Arizona College of Optometry at Midwestern University, those checks are important, even if a child isn't showing any obvious signs of poor vision.

"Kids can complain of things like headaches when they read, or they get really sleepy, and a lot of times you have no idea that the root of that could be vision," Varney said. "A lot of the issues that kids will struggle with in school don't appear to be a vision thing, because the kids won't always say, 'it's blurry when I look at something.' "

Varney added that children can have a number of vision issues beyond just nearsightedness or farsightedness. She said vision exams will test for astigmatism, eye-tracking issues and eye health.


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May is mental health awareness month. As part of that, groups in Idaho are using HOPE Week to help kids in crisis and reduce the state's worrying number of child suicides.

Jean Mutchie is president of the Idaho Resilience Project and a community health manager at Saint Luke's Health System. She said the project and Optum Idaho are teaming up to promote positive moments for kids, which can ease adverse experiences.

Mutchie said Optum Idaho is distributing 20,000 kites across the state - to gets them outside and playing.

"We're really focusing on kites, bikes and hikes," said Mutchie. "So really encouraging people to get outside with somebody else and engage in a positive activity."

HOPE stands for "Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences," and the theme for this year's HOPE week is "hope lives here."

Mutchie said there are a lot of ways to promote the mental well-being of children. She said connections with an adult who is not a family member can help protect their state of mind.

"And if you ask a lot of kids, they can't identify a trusted adult who's not part of their family," said Mutchie. "And so that one non-family member who is that trusted adult in a child's life can make an enormous difference. And data backs that up."

COVID-19 has taken a big toll, and is raising concerns about the number of Idaho children in crisis.

Recent surveys show as many as three quarters of respondents thought the pandemic had worsened mental health in the state, and a huge majority say addressing children's mental health is an especially urgent priority.

Mutchie said one key is that people should feel like they can ask for help.

"Really encourage people to seek help, destigmatize, understand that it's OK to not be OK and it's really OK to reach to somebody," said Mutchie. "And also encourage other people to start to build connection and support to really combat isolation and some of the lack of connect that we've faced during COVID."

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 takes calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.




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May is National Foster Care Month and Idaho is focused on bringing more foster parents into the fold.

It's always been difficult for states to recruit the number of foster parents they need to support children. But Julie Sevcik, project manager for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said the pandemic has added another challenge.

She said the state relies on recruitment coordinators who can speak to potential applicants face-to-face, at in-person events, about the critical need for foster parents.

"Those two years of not being able to attend events, because they were canceled because of COVID," said Sevcik, "that did decrease our inquiry numbers quite a bit, as well as our new foster parents."

There were 1,5000 children in foster care in 2020, according to Idaho Department of Health and Welfare data. It also notes 65% of children are eventually reunited with their families.

Since there have been fewer foster parents over the years, Sevcik said her agency can struggle to identify the best matches for children with a smaller pool to choose from.

She said that presents other challenges as well, for parents who already are fostering children.

"We also will struggle to provide those foster families with a break in between their placements," said Sevcik. "To allow them the time that it takes to come back together again as a family and be prepared to accept another child in their home."

Sevcik said her agency provides resources for prospective foster parents, including a mentor with experience in this field, and training also is available.

She said it can be difficult work, but also rewarding for foster parents to see biological families make the changes they need to reunite with children.

"Foster parents are our absolute greatest asset," said Sevcik, "to being able to meet the needs of children who are unable to be safely managed in their own biological families. And we just appreciate everything that they do."

Last year, a whistleblower at Facebook lifted the curtain on how the platform, and its sister companies, impact young kids' mental health.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, alongside teachers and health experts, is raising concerns about the long-term effects social media can have on kids. In an event this week hosted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), she described the corrosive effects social media have on kids' mental well-being as a public health crisis.

"If we hold children's toys to a product liability standard, where you need to demonstrate you did safety by design, why aren't we asking the same thing of these virtual products for children?" Haugen questioned. "Especially as we move into the land of the 'metaverse,' which is going to be an emergent harm."

Haugen argued social media companies should be held to Congressionally-mandated standards, an idea which has rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Meta, Facebook's parent company, contended it already has adequate internal safeguards and protocols.

Among other things, Haugen revealed leaders at Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, knew the platform's algorithm fed kids potentially harmful content, but opted to essentially double down in order to drive user engagement.

Dalia Hashad, director of online safety for the Washington, D.C.-based organization ParentsTogether, said such strategies have long-term consequences.

"Without fail, the longer a child spends online, the higher their level of anxiety, the higher the level of mood swings, aggressive behavior, feelings of worthlessness," Hashad outlined.

Dr. Warren Ng, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, said having open lines of communication can help prevent issues before they arise. He explained it starts with simply asking kids how they're doing.

"And don't ask them in a way that 'You're OK, right?' No, really ask them, 'Things are really tough right now, how are you doing?' And really being open to that; but also being open to hearing not good news," Ng advised.

The AFT has an archive of previous webinars and educational resources for parents and teachers looking to provide emotional and psychological support for students.