The Washington County Public Health department is hoping to expand services and provide vision screenings. At Thursday’s Board of Health meeting a grant application to the Washington County Riverboat Foundation for equipment to do vision screenings was approved unanimously.

Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski explained the equipment they’d like to get costs about $7,400 and is a tool that can be used on children as young as six months of age. The tool doesn’t use the lines of letters that people then identify, but rather allows the person using it to examine eyes, thus making it possible for young children and non-verbal people to have their eyes screened.

Iowa students have to have a vision screening before kindergarten and third grade.