An extra 70,000 Victorian students will benefit from vision screening and free glasses as part of the Victorian Government’s boost to its popular Glasses for Kids program.
Minister for Education Ben Carroll and Member for Williamstown Melissa Horne visited Altona North Primary School to see the eye testing in action – with the Victorian Budget 2024/25 investing $6.8 million to triple the capacity of the program to support more Prep to Year 3 students with free onsite vision screening and, if needed, free glasses.
The expansion will open the program up to an extra 473 schools, making it available to 74,000 more Prep to Year 3 students through to 2027.
The Glasses for Kids program is managed and delivered by State Schools’ Relief and offered to students from Victorian Government schools identified with high and medium levels of disadvantage, based on the school’s Student Family Occupational Education Index.
Minister for Education Ben Carroll said too many kids fall behind in school because of undiagnosed and treatable vision problems.
“That’s why we’re expanding the Glasses for Kids program,” he said.
“We delivered a Budget that’s helping Victorian families – the School Saving Bonus, School Breakfast Clubs, Glasses for Kids and the Affordable School Uniforms program sit at the heart of our plan to ease cost-of-living pressures for families right across the state.”
“It’s great to see this successful program being expanded to help even more kids access free glasses,” Member for Williamstown, Ms Melissa Horne, said.
“Testing and fittings at schools means we make life easier for busy families schedules.”
The Glasses for Kids expansion is part of the $287 million package also delivering a once-off $400 School Saving Bonus which will help around 700,000 students with uniforms, camps, excursions and sporting events at school – to make sure no child misses out on school activities due to financial stress.
The once-off Bonus will be applied to school accounts for each child, but can be spent per family – so a family with three school children will receive $1,200 in support to spend on school costs.
This is in addition to the Victorian Government’s $32.9 million boost for the Affordable School Uniform program last year, supporting families to access uniforms and other essential items.
The Victorian Budget 2024/25 also expands access to the School Breakfast Clubs Program to every government school for the first time, with 150 additional schools to join the program over the next year – expected to support up to 200,000 students – before rolling out to all remaining schools from July 2025.
