The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

As a third year at ICO, you are required to complete a “CPS rotation.” This is when you work at an off-campus site owned by the school and treat patients within the Chicago Public School system. Patients rage in ages from infancy to 21 years old. The location of the site is Princeton Elementary School. A portion of it has been transformed into a clinic where students from surrounding schools can be treated. Working with CPS gives us a chance to enhance the availability of hea

First off, what is CPS? It stands for Chicago Public Schools, and for ICO students, it is one of our third year specialty sites. Our CPS rotation is at a school on Princeton Ave, a few blocks south of the White Sox stadium. Each week, we can have walk-in patients, or we have a bus that brings a group of kids from different schools in the area. CPS sees patients up until the age of 18. CPS is definitely different from regular clinic at the Illinois Eye Institute. At the IEI, w