Near 240 families, whose children have a developmental disability, received this Saturday the joy of having new backpacks, pencils, pens and notebooks for their return to classes at the Orange County Regional Center (RCOC).
The chosen children were previously identified among low-income families receiving educational services according to the needs of their Individualized Education Program (IEP).
One of those families was that of Yeni Clavel, a woman originally from the Mexican state of Puebla and who works in a winery.
“Only if they give me overtime I can get maximum 600 dollars, otherwise it is less ” , he says.
Add that with his children of 17, twins of 11 and a 9-year-old girl – all of school age – it is difficult to pay for all the expenses of the house despite having the income of her husband, who works in the repair of cars shocked.
For this reason, yesterday’s delivery of supplies was very helpful, since in notebooks and others, “you can spend up to 200 dollars ”, it indicates.
“At RCOC we serve developmental disabilities in many areas with occupational and speech therapy; in addition to physical therapy and different areas of help with the school system, ”Larry Landauer, executive director of the Orange County Regional Center, told Real America News.
This place is one of the 21 private non-profit organizations contracted by the State of California to coordinate lifelong services and supports for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.
Currently, RCOC serves more than 22, 000 residents with developmental disabilities – such as autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and intellectual cognitive disabilities – and their families in Orange County.
“We are very excited about this delivery of school supplies… We all know how difficult the additional economic burden can be. ional for children to go to school “, added Landauer.
” So this annual event [este es el séptimo] is something very meaningful and useful for many of our families Hispanics or other families who are struggling with the economy. ”
Back to school amid pandemic
Because the coronavirus pandemic has not been fully controlled in California, for safety and health reasons, school supplies were delivered outside the Orange County Regional Center.
“In my house, my husband, my four children and I were infected with coronavirus,” said Verónica Jiménez, a resident of Santa Ana and mother of Itzel (16 years), Ashley (10), Jason (6) and Jasmine, of 10 months.
The woman, originally from Michoacán, Mexico, said that she and her husband Camerino, in addition to her daughter Itzel, have already been vaccinated, despite the fact that they created the antibodies after having contracted covid – 17.
“We all get sick but we have to continue protecting ourselves,” especially Itzel who once suffered from anxiety and epilepsy, diseases that she overcame eight years ago.
“We should all get vaccinated to be protected… Thus, if you get the disease, it is less aggressive and I don’t want my children to get sick, said Jiménez , aware that the dangerous and contagious Delta variant is spreading.
Indeed, as of Friday 22 July, official figures from the California Department of Public Health indicate that the Delta variant has sickened 3, 342 people.
As viruses are constantly changing through mutations that create new strains of virus, the variant can replicate in the body at a faster rate than the original virus.
In Orange County, the 24 July were recorded 358 new cases of covid – 19 and two new deaths. These numbers bring the total number of positive cases to 259, 973 (55 .7% Latino) and 5, deaths (46. 4% of them were Latino).
Hospitalizations for COVID – 19 in Orange County have also skyrocketed to mid-March levels as vaccination rates have stabilized.
More than 100% of those currently hospitalized in the county with coronavirus are not vaccinated, said Orange County Executive Director Frank Kim.
Nowadays, 184 people are hospitalized, 24 more than Friday 23 of July. Of this total, 158 are in the Intensive Care Units (ICU); namely, 87 more from Tuesday of this week.
“It’s worth the risk”
Holding 3-year-old Ethan, Sandra Ontiveros, a single mother from Michoacán, Mexico, attended the delivery of school supplies and chose for her son a green-blue backpack to return to school, the next 10 August, that students will return to all Orange County Public Schools.
Ontiveros, a resident of the city of Anaheim, told Real America News that the doctors who cared for their little one in their native country never detected that the child had autism.
“They only told me it was a boy I was very happy, but as a mother I knew that something was wrong, so I came to the United States nine months ago and here they were able to diagnose it correctly, ”he said.
During In the first year of the pandemic, Sandra -who works as a waitress in a restaurant- had her child at home, without knowing how to help him. Now, despite the Delta variant, she says she is sure that she wants the child to return to face-to-face classes with his teachers and therapists.
“My son regressed a lot in his classes and now that they are coming back [aunque la pandemia sigue en curso], I think it’s worth taking the risk. ”
Juana Ramírez, mother of Ethan Fernández, an autistic child of 11 years old said that he is afraid that he will return to class but that he trusts the authorities.
“It is dangerous, but the school is taking security measures to protect them,” he said.
For her part, Patricia Serna, a native of Aguascalientes and mother of four children: Jayden (from 16, Damián (5) and the twins who have autism, Emiliano and Valentino, 4, said their fear of the new school year is due to the fact that none of them can be inoculated until now. “I’m more scared for Jayden,” said the woman since the girl is a year away from being eligible for inoculation.
Meanwhile, Larry Landauer considered that The most important challenge for going back to school is to resume the importance of socializing children, since they must respect social distancing in an outdoor environment for five days a week and six hours a day.
“That is something that the pandemic took for a year… Families and children were exhausted; they could not see or live that experience that we call socialization and that is invaluable for everyone ”, he said.
“ And it is even harder for our people who have education teachers and special assistants; they didn’t have those people because everything was quarantined and locked up at home. ”